MWC 2015: All the latest news

MWC is the show that produces the goods when it comes to mobiles (and more recently wearables), and MWC 2015 hasn't left us disappointed.

With the show well under way, most of the major launches have taken place. But it isn't quite over: we're still scurrying the floor to continue bringing you the low-down on the new products we haven't played with yet.

To see what's happened so far, check out our brand-by-brand guide to find out everything that's happened and we've seen in Barcelona so far...

Hands on: Galaxy S6 review

Arrives in a full-metal jacket

Samsung couldn't resist teasing the Galaxy S6 in the lead up to MWC, and now the Korean company's latest flagship is official. It comes rocking a QHD 577ppi display - the sharpest on the market - and a super bright mode that comes on when outside. It's a thing of beauty and feels solid in the hands thanks to a combination of metal and Gorilla Glass 4. There are some downsides to Samsung's latest flagship unfortunately. There's no removable battery, and the disappearance of a microSD slot may rule it out of the running for some. Read: Samsung Galaxy S6 hands on review

Galaxy S6 storms the benchmarks

You can fly fast in space

Under the hood, Samsung has opted to take a chance on its own Exynos 7420 (instead of a Snapdragon variant) in the Galaxy S6 and it appears to have paid off. Early benchmarks show that the Galaxy S6 tops the multi-core tablet with a score of 4,547, compared to the HTC One M9's 3,959. Safe to say it's a real powerhouse. Read: Samsung Galaxy S6 storms the benchmarks

Hands on: Galaxy S6 Edge review

Pulling Samsung back from the brink

The Samsung Galaxy S6 launched alongside the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, which is a similar handset but comes with a dual-curved display. It's a marvel to behold and something that would wow others when you pull it out in the pub. It has a bigger battery than the Galaxy S6 and provides clever notifications along its side edge that let you know who's calling, which is almost worth the (admittedly quite pricey) rate of admission alone. Read: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge hands on review

Hands on: Samsung Gear VR (S6) review

Virtually there

If you're nailed-on buying a Samsung Galaxy S6, and you have even a passing interest in VR, the Samsung Gear VR (S6) would make an excellent companion device. Simply put: it's awesome. Sure, it's bulky and might chop off the ends of your eyelashes but it's not uncomfortable and lets you dive into incredible, immersive virtual worlds. It's 15% lighter than the original Gear VR, but on the downside doesn't appear to take advantage of the Galaxy S6's display's improved 577ppi. Oh, and it still costs a fair whack. Read: Samsung Gear VR (S6) hands on review

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5

New beats old in (almost) every department

It's not unusual for a new smartphone to look and feel better than its predecessor, but the Galaxy S6 is on an altogether different level to the Galaxy S5. It's packing premium materials for a start, in contrast with the S5's plastic exterior. The Galaxy S6 is the most attractive of the two thanks not only to its build quality but also its superior QHD display. That's not to say the Galaxy S5 is out for the count: it packs a bigger (and removable) battery than the S6, which could make all the difference if you value battery life over everything else. Read:Samsung Galaxy S6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5

Hands on: HTC One M9 review

All that glitters is gold

HTC has revealed the expected HTC One M9 complete with its dazzling design and satisfying, weighty feel. It sits nicely in the palm and screams premium. The M9 uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 which keeps things zipping along nicely, helped along by a beefy 3GB of RAM. HTC has made some inroads when it comes to battery life: the M9 houses a 2800 mAh battery that's helped along by the various power saving modes from last year. The only cause for concern is the HTC One M9's stock Sony 20MP camera sensor, which takes pictures that disappointingly lack depth and colour. Read:HTC One M9 hands-on review

HTC One M9 vs HTC One M8

Like a difficult second album following a classic debut

The HTC One M8 was always going to take some beating. It's currently sitting at the top of our best smartphones list, meaning the HTC One M9 had its work cut out before it even arrived. J Rogerson has drawn up a comparison of the two in a piece that pitches last year's model with 2015's bigger, bold and metal-er handset. The question is: is it better? Read:HTC One M9 vs HTC One m8

Hands on: HTC Grip review

GPS means runners can leave the smartphone at home

The HTC Grip is a fitness band not dissimilar to the Nike Fuelband, arriving complete with a clasping arm and LCD display. It's a very low-res one at that, which on the up side means that it's very good on power drain. The Grip is primarily designed to be used as a fitness tracker in conjunction with the Under Armour Record app, meaning it doesn't have to be tethered to your handset as it packs its own accelerometer and GPS. It's a device runners could take with them on long runs (its battery lasts up to five hours) instead of a smartphone. Read: HTC Grip hands-on review

Hands on: HTC Vive review

Reality bites... in a good way

As a nice surprise, HTC announced it has partnered with Valve for a high-end virtual reality headset called the HTC Vive. You might expect this to be a mobile affair, but the Vive is eschewing the smartphone in the name of high-powered VR, and we couldn't help but break out into a huge smile when we wrapped it around our face. The Vive isn't just for fans of Sci-Fi TV shows, though - aside from gaming, it could let you do things like wander around museums, watch films and even learn. We're quite excited about its zombie killing potential, too. Read:HTC Vive hands on review

Hands on: Microsoft Lumia 640 review

An attractive mid-range Lumia handset

The Lumia 640 is the first of two new mid-range Lumia handsets Microsoft unveiled at MWC. With an impressive display, Dual-SIM functionality and optional 4G all available at a sensible price, the Lumia 640 could be a great option for Windows Phone fans. Read:Microsoft Lumia 640 hands on review

Hands on: Windows 10 mobile review

A proper look at Microsoft's mobile OS

We've gone hands on with the next version of Microsoft's Windows Phone OS, and it shows real promise. Windows 10 Mobile sports a fantastic new design that goes big on translucent effects in contrast to the 2D tiles of old. Additionally, Microsoft has built notifications into the UI and made welcome tweaks to the way apps are presented and accessed using swipes. All good stuff, but will it be enough to sway non-Windows Phone users away from iOS and Android? Read:Windows 10 Mobile review

Hands on: Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet review

PS4 in the bath? We're sold...

Does Apple's iPad have a new serious competitor? That appears to be the case following the launch of Sony's Xperia Z4 Tablet, which could give both Apple and Microsoft a reason to be concerned. The 10.1-inch tablet barely troubles the scales at 396 grams and measures just 6.1mm. The waterproof Xperia Z4 Tablet's Remote Play feature means you can play on Sony's console in the bath too. Promising stuff indeed. Read:Sony's Xperia Z4 Tablet should intimidate Apple, annoy Microsoft

Hands on: Sony Xperia M4 Aqua review

Mid-range waterproof handsets aim to make a splash

Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua echoes the company's flagship Xperia Z3, yet it costs a much more palatable €299 (about £220, $340). In other words, if you like the look of Sony's top-end smartphones but are put off by the price tag, the 5-inch Xperia M4 Aqua could prove a better fit. The specs aren't too shabby either: a clear 720 display, waterproof build and strong 13MP onboard camera might just be enough to make you forgive it for not being compatible with PS4 Remote Play. Read: Sony Xperia M4 Aqua hands on review

Hands on: LG Joy review

We'll only be happy if it's affordable

The LG Joy is the first of four mid-range phones in its 2015 selection. It has a 4-inch WVGA display with a pixel resolution of 480 x 800 and a pixel density of 233ppi. The Joy will come in two versions, with one offering 1GB of RAM with 8GB of internal storage and a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU. The other will rock up with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. Its storage can be expanded by up to 32GB using a microSD card. Read: LG Joy hands on review

Hands on: LG Leon review

No, it's not a French soldier

The LG Leon sits in the middle (or one up above the LG Joy) in the company's new range of mid-tier smartphones, and it's something of a limited offering. With only 8GB of onboard storage and no way of expanding it via microSD, you wouldn't be able to install too many large apps on the Leon. On the plus side it has a responsive screen and looks, well, alright. It's all just a bit middle of the road - which is sort of the point. Read:LG Leon hands on review

Hands on: LG Spirit review

Getting there...

The LG Spirit is a step up above above the LG Leon, but still only comes with 8GB of internal storage (it's once again non-expandable via microSD). If that doesn't bother you, the LG Spirit is a well-designed handset that feels compact and soft in the hand, and features a nice and bright display that uses LG's in-cell technology to improve contrast ratios and responsiveness under the finger. Read:LG Spirit hands on review

Hands on: Huawei Y635 smartphone

Could be the best budget smartphone yet

With no flagship phone in sight at MWC 2015, Huawei has outed the Y635 - a cheap and cheerful smartphone. It's a solidly built handset that comes with 4G and NFC for a reasonable price, one that should see it go up against the Moto E, Lumia 535 and Moto G. Better yet it comes with a 5-inch display, quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, meaning it may not only match those handsets but steal their best budget blower crown altogether. Read:Huawei Y635 hands on review

Hands on: Huawei Talkband N1

A headset that doubles up as a necklace

If you're the kind of person who likes to make a fashion statement with your headset, the Huawei Talkband N1 will be right up your alley. The innovative headphones stick together using magnets when worn around the neck, which could come in handy for peopel who have finished their run and need their hearing back but don't have a pocket in theri spandex outfit. Read: Huawei Talkband N1

Hands on: Huawei Talkband B2 review

Now you can really 'talk to the band'

Huawei kicked things off with a handful of new devices, including the second generation of its fitness wearable, the Huawei Talkband B2. The fitness tracker promises greater functionality, better accuracy and a more pleasing design over the Talkband B1, and the Android and iOS-compatible device doubles up as a handy Bluetooth headset. Read: Huawei Talkband B2 hands on review.

Pebble Time gets smarter with 'smartstrap' accessories

Smartstraps? What a clever idea

It only makes sense that smartwatches should come with "smartstraps", but until MWC 2015 it wasn't clear what one would look like, or even be. Pebble has announced that its smartstraps will allow developers and hardware makers to extend a Pebble Time or Time Steel watch's functionality to extend battery life, give it GPS independent of a smartphone, or even add a heart-rate monitor. Read: Pebble Time gets smarter with 'smartstrap' accessories

Hands on: Pebble Time Steel review

A Pebble with a grown-up twist

The original Pebble did a good job of standing out against other smartwatches thanks to its e-paper display and colourful stylings, but it was a bit childlike for some people. Pebble is looking to fix that with the Pebble Time Steel, which combines an e-paper display and extra-long battery life with a more mature appearance. It's probably a good job it's for the older crowd as its $299 (about £295, AUS$383) doesn't exactly position it in pocket money territory. Read:Pebble Time Steel hands on review

BlackBerry unwraps the Leap smartphone

Gunning for young professionals

BlackBerry has unveiled a new smartphone called the Leap. It comes with a 5-inch edge-to-edge display and an impressive 2,800mAh battery, 2GB of RAM and BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS. Shortly after unveiling the Leak, BlackBerry confirmed that the company will release three more handsets in 2015 - one of which will arrive as a curved slider phone.

ZTE unveils the Blade S6 smartphone

A slice of budget smartphone action

BMicrosoft's mid-range Lumias aside, many of the devices unveiled at MWC 2015 have been high-end heavyweights, which makes the emergence of the ZTE's Blade S6, a budget phone with impressive internals, somewhat refreshing. On paper, anyway - the spec sheet shows that the Blade 6 would be handy in a scrap thanks to its 64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM and leggy 3,000 mAh battery. However, as noted by TechRadar Global Editor-In-Chief Patrick Goss, the Blade S6 suffers from lacklustre build quality that doesn't lend it the premium touch that it deserves. It's not unattractive, but like your favourite celebrities in 4K, its looks deteriorate the closer you get to it.

Nokia unveils the Lollipop-powered N1

An Android tablet to fall in love with

Speaking of Android, TechRadar Phones and Tablets deputy editor John McCann thinks he's fell in love with the Nokia N1, a Lollipop-powered Android tablet that bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPad Mini. As noted in our hands-on review, it uses the new USB Type-C connector and weighs a featherlight 318 grams. There's no guarantee it will head to markets beyond China, but here's hoping it does.

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 820 processor

A CPU that's clever in more ways than one

Qualcomm has used MWC 2015 to announce the successor to its Snapdragon 810 CPU. Coming in the second half the year, the snappily-named Snapdragon 820 could feature in the Galaxy Note 5 and is said to give mobile devices new levels of intelligence and personalization.

MWC 2015: What was expected pre-show

MWC is quite possibly the biggest yearly event in the mobile world. At MWC 2014 for example we saw the Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2 and a plethora of other smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.

MWC 2015 is expected to be every bit as big and there are plenty of rumblings of what might be on show. It's still only the press day, and we've already seen the launch of big-name handsets including the HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in Barcelona.

They are showstoppers on their own, but there are lots of other things going on in the mobile world too. Here's what we know so far.

Sony will have a booth at the show and we're bound to see something from the company.

For one thing we're due an update to the 10.1-inch Xperia Z2 Tablet, plus there's a chance we'll see another Android Wear smartwatch to join the SmartWatch 3 in Sony's ranks, and there's always the possibility of some new mid-range handsets.

LG

Another possible flagship? Well, no. Not by the looks of it. Like Sony, it appears LG will hold the launch of its LG G4 until later in the year, avoiding the flurry of announcements which will be made in Barcelona.

Last year the LG G3 was launched at its own unique event in London, and with a potentially crowded line up of new devices at MWC it makes sense for the Korean firm to do its own thing afterwards.

LG has already launched three Android Wear smartwatches, and we got our hands on the LG G Watch Urbane and G Watch Urbane LTE in Barcelona. We'd say LG probably won't roll out another at the show - but we're not ruling it out completely.

Microsoft

Last year Nokia caused a storm at MWC by launching handsets running a heavily modified version of Google's Android operating system.

The sad news is Nokia is unlikely to be at MWC 2015, and if it is its presence will be much, much smaller. On a positive note Microsoft will be taking over what was the Nokia booth, exuding all things Lumia and Windows Phone.

There's not a huge amount of news regarding exactly what will be on show, but it's been a while since the flagship Nokia Lumia 930 was launched, so it's about time for a new hero for the Windows Phone brand.

Talk about a successor to the 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 refuses to die down, so we'll be on the lookout for another powerful cameraphone too. Then again there are also reports that Microsoft won't bring out any major new hardware until later in the year.

So what will the press conference be about? Our guess is more Windows 10 for phones information, coupled perhaps with some mid-range or low-end handset announcements.

We're also hearing mutterings that Microsoft may be readying a new wearable which could be shown off in Barcelona.

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/mwc-2015-what-we-want-to-see-1268443?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/1268443Kane Fulton2015-03-03T18:36:00ZMobile phones, Phone and communications, Tablets, Mobile computing, WearablesUpdated: Top 100 best free games you should play todayhttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/Best%20Free%20Games%202014%20Part%202/vindictus-470-75.jpg

Best free games to play today

Gaming is often considered an expensive hobby. Consoles cost hundreds, and gaming PCs can easily run to over a grand. However, once you're set up with a rig, the amount of games you can get for free is staggering.

We've added another 50 games to this already bulging list of freebies. If you think we've missed out your favourite or found a dead link, let us know.

Sure, to play the latest AAA console smash, you're going to have to put your hand in your pocket, but there's a different route too.

As well as an army of top free-to-play online games that attract players in their thousands, if not millions, there are scores of freeware titles you'd be mad to miss. Everyone from EA to the tiniest indie developer has something to offer.

We've gathered together 50 of the best free games available for the PC, and some on the Mac, from browser Flash titles to giant sprawling MMORPGs. And there are a few games here that you used to have to pay top dollar for, thrown in for good measure.

1. Planetside 2

Two years before Destiny, back in 2012, we had Planetside 2. It's an epic, all-out first-person battle so impressive, you'll give yourself a quick pinch every time you remember it's completely free. There are in-game purchases of course, but you can still dive into gaming's biggest ever battlefield and be useful with just default gear.

There's simply nothing like taking part in a massed assault on an enemy base and coming out on top, or living in a world where an enemy convoy could appear on the horizon at any second. If you need any proof that 'free' doesn't mean making compromises any more, Planetside 2 will provide it.

2. Dota 2

The Dota universe came from a mod made for World of Warcraft 3, but Dota 2 is very much its own entity, not to mention one of the most popular free-to-play games.

A brief tutorial now points out the ropes, with the Steam Community stepping in to provide guides to the original MOBA (or whatever-you-want-to-call-this-genre-if-not-MOBA).

Don't expect a warm welcome or easy learning curve from this surprisingly complex game, but bring a few friends and you have a good chance of being hooked on one of the biggest crazes in PC history.

3. Tribes: Ascend

Jetpacks rule: it's one of the few things you can rely on apart from death and taxes. And Tribes: Ascend is the world's premiere online jetpack shooter. Don your jetpack and launch into battle across huge maps, with weapons that take real skill just to land a hit – never mind a kill.

Tribes: Ascend is fast, furious, and absolutely brilliant, and there's no reason to spend any money in the in-game shop if you simply want to hold your own in battle. Though there's plenty of stuff to buy if you do fancy splashing some cash…

You can pay to unlock more classes, weapons and perks, but if you're going to keep it casual you can still have loads of fun with Tribes: Ascend.

4. Path of Exile

A Diablo III-style third-person role-playing game, Path of Exile is a bit different from most free-to-play games out there. It's not just about whacking real life people until they scream at you in shrill pubescent tones through their Skype headsets.

It's more of a slow-burner than a multiplayer blaster, but give it time and you may well fall in love with this free-to-play loot-gathering hit. There are hidden depths that you only uncover after playing for hours (and hours), and a huge skill tree to slowly pick away at. There are no game-ruining things like real money auction houses here, either.

Instead, even basic loot can be useful because there's always an opportunity to enhance even the simplest weapon with magic. If you got tired of the grind of Diablo III, it's a good one to check out.

5. League of Legends

Pick your champion and head into battle in this amazing free-to-play game from the creators of Dota. League of Legends' automated matchmaking, range of characters and excellent maps have made it a multiplayer star over the last year, and one well worth a play.

It's a very aggressive game to play, but one that rewards good teamwork and careful tactics. Don't expect to master it overnight, but it won't be long before you're having fun.

Like Dota 2, League of Legends attracts many high-end players, and the top tournaments offer prize pools of over £1,000,000. The weird world of e-sports, eh?

6. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Ever played Magic the Gathering, the card game? Hearthstone is Blizzard's attempt at making an online free-to-play alternative to it.

And in typical Blizzard fashion, it's excellent. It's immediately inviting, lacking the terrifying learning curve you might expect from an online fantasy card game. Hearthstone plays quickly, boasts an almost casual-style visual approach, and benefits from a basic rule set, all of which adds up to a very accessible card battler that will give you hours of enjoyment.

7. Might & Magic: Duel of Champions

There's one other alternative to Hearthstone we need to mention, too, and that's Might & Magic: Duel of Champions. It initially seems a bit less accessible, with a less glossy approach that feels a bit closer to card battling's roots, but there's actually a bit less grind involved in the game.

That means a bit less of the casino-effect visual hit when you win, but it won't sap your time in quite the same way either. Unless that's what you're after.

Where's the official Magic: The Gathering take on the fantasy card battler? There is one, called Magic Online, but as there's real money involved it's anything but free.

8. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Taking over from the original Star Wars MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies in 2011, Star Wars: The Old Republic was not free at release. But it has since, like so many games of this kind, adopted the free-to-play model. If you want to get Sith kicks, this is the best way to get them for free.

However, subscriptions are still available, giving you more in-game potential. All the story missions are available without a sub – they just might take you that bit longer.

It's worth the download simply to experience the Star Wars universe from different perspectives, like the hyper-professional Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter. If you want to go with the dull option and just have a generic Jedi Knight, though, that's fine too.

9. Super Crate Box

Dullest name in the world? Possibly! Super Crate Box makes up for it, though, with a simple mechanic that's far more fun than it has any right to be. How long can you last against a stream of incoming monsters? It probably depends whether you're fighting them off with a pistol or a rocket launcher.

The catch is that you don't score points for killing, but collecting crates – and every crate gives you a different weapon. And not killing the monsters only makes them crosser. It might not sound like much, but its speed and difficulty will keep you hooked from the off.

10. The Battle for Wesnoth

You might have already encountered this little gem on your phone – it's available for iOS and Android – but it's totally free on PC and Mac. Those who were avid gamers in the 90s and 2000s will appreciate its old-school blend of turn-based battling.

The fantasy setting and hex-based map make Battle for Wesnoth feel a lot like an indie alternative to the Heroes of Might and Magic games – titles we've plunged many hours into over the last two decades.

Younger gamers may notice the game style is a little like Advance Wars, but there's a lot more beef to this epic strategy battler. It started out with six factions available to play back in 2009, but since then user-generated content has added a bunch of completely new eras, making this a gargantuan game.

11. World of Tanks

World of Tanks is a different kind of MMO – the clue being in the title. Team-based, massively multiplayer action with a huge range of war machines to drive into battle awaits, with new players able to join the action immediately.

An upgrade system adds a sense of personalisation, while being surrounded by a whole army constantly reminds you that loners don't do well on the battlefield. Get sucked in, though, and you may find you end up spending a chunk of your wages on great big chunks of virtual metal.

While some premium tanks cost just a few pounds, others tip above £30. You can see where maker Wargaming is going to earn some cash from World of Tanks enthusiasts.

12. War Thunder

Think World of Tanks is a bit too arcade-like for your tastes? You need to try out War Thunder. Despite being lesser-known, it's a great alternative to that tank battler. And for an extra sweetener, it throws airplanes into the mix too. As you might expect, they're a great deal of fun.

With a fast enough PC, War Thunder offers visual quality you don't see too often in free-to-play games. You will need to pay some cash to get hold of the more interesting planes and tanks early on, but getting Battlefield-like play for free sounds like a good deal to us.

There are arcade and historical battles on offer – the former is great for a more casual blast while historical battles are more for players with a few hours on their flight card.

13. The Ur-Quan Masters

This game proves you don't need flashy visuals to create an offering with a compelling narrative. The Ur-Quan Masters is a fan-tweaked version of one of the classic PC space operas, Star Control 2. It's an action-strategy game where you build up a fleet of spacecraft from various races, to finally do battle with the Ur-Quan.

Adventure, strategy, action – it's all bunged into this melting pot.

The Ur-Quan Masters sees you navigate through an intergalactic space war where the politics are more tangled than that bag of cables you have stashed in a cupboard somewhere. You have to convince races to join you in battle, or risk taking them on as enemies.

An often-overlooked classic, Star Control 2 is worth experiencing even if you didn't know about it first time around.

14. Black Mesa

Remember a little game called Half-Life? It was quite popular. Black Mesa Source is the long-awaited rebuild of it in Valve's Half-Life 2 Source engine, and a must-play for any fan of the series.

It's not simply a pixel-for-pixel recreation, but a re-imagining of it – adding detail so seamlessly that you'll forget how primitive the original was, as well as a few extra elements of its own, like female Black Mesa scientists.

It was an epic project, and the (mostly) complete version was finally released in late 2012. It's worth experiencing. You can download the full version as a legal torrent. In 2013 some improvements were made to certain levels in Black Mesa, so be sure to grab those files too.

15. Runescape

Runescape is one of the biggest free-to-play MMOs out there, and now would be a good time to take a look. In 2013 it entered its third reboot – this is actually 'Runescape 3', although just jumping in now you might not appreciate it has been around in one form or another for more than 10 years.

It's certainly not the shiniest MMO in the world despite the revamp, but hanging onto this many players shows it's doing something right. The big change introduced in Runescape 3 that made it appear a lot more modern was the ability to see much further – in Runescape 2 the horizon quickly gave way to fog. Not so now.

You can download the game or run it in your browser using Java, making it much more convenient than most other online role-players of this epic scale.

16. FreeOrion

Ever wanted to run your own galaxy? Such real life aspirations might be a sign you have a hint of a megalomania problem, but in the game world it's perfectly acceptable. The dominance of consoles mean that we rarely see games of such scope, but for the more ambitious gamer, there's FreeOrion.

It's a free indie title inspired by the classic space strategy series Master of Orion, the first two instalments of which were adored back in the 90s. But as games that old seem a bit musty these days, we have FreeOrion.

As it's still in the thick of development, it's best for those who have some experience of the genre. Let's just say it's not exactly user-friendly yet.

17. Ben there, Dan That!

The creators of Ben There, Dan That now make paid-for games, and on the publisher website you'll only find the 'special edition' of this title, which comes with a mandatory donation. But if you're really strapped for cash you'll find the original freeware version on the Adventure Game Studio website – the tool with which this game was made.

It's an unashamed love letter to the point 'n' click games of old, the LucasArts classics that many of you may remember.

18. Smite

Gods from around the world get together to battle it out in a Dota/MOBA inspired clash of divine vengeance in this effort. Despite Smite's obvious inspirations, it comes from the same developer that made FPS smash Tribes Ascend – a completely different beast.

The camera is behind the characters this time, making for a more direct connection to the action than simply guiding your lord around with a mouse, but the premise will be either familiar if you've played its inspirations, or a way to get the feel for the style if you haven't. Gods include Zeus, Thor, Kali, Artemis and... Cupid? Well, at least he has his own bow…

19. Lord of the Rings Online

Many MMOs are being launched or relaunched as free-to-play at the moment, but Lord of the Rings Online is one of the titles that most warrants a second look. Not only is it an excellent game in its own right, it's one of the more mature MMOs out there.

You will likely have to pay eventually, if only to unlock adventure packs, but there's no subscription fee and nothing to buy up-front. If you missed it at launch, it's time to give it a try.

20. Quest for Glory II VGA

While many veteran gamers remember the LucasArts classic adventures – the Monkey Island games, Grim Fandango, Sam & Max and so on – AGD Interactive has busily been recreating some of the lesser-known 90s adventures. Quest for Glory II is our favourite of the lot.

It's an adventure/RPG hybrid that can be played as a Warrior, Magic User or Thief, with each path unlocking new challenges and opportunities. It's funny, exciting, and incredibly open, and one of the most beloved adventure games ever made – both in its original form, and in this more recent remake.

On the ADG website you'll also find remakes of King's Quest I-III. All for free.

21. Battlestar Galactica

The official Battlestar Galactica MMO is interesting for two reasons – it plays in the browser (and looks pretty good), and it's completely free-to-play. That's unusual for any licensed game, although as ever, the words 'free-to-play' have the words 'with-optional-purchases' slapped right onto the end.

The story is that both Galactica and the Cylons have been blasted into a new area of space by a mysterious bit of technology, and now both sides are fighting over outposts and control points. You can choose either, with a bit of wandering around the ships, and lots of mouse-based space combat and mining.

22. Flight of the Amazon Queen

One of a handful of classic adventure games now available for free, Flight of the Amazon Queen is the story of the wise-cracking, slightly bone-headed Joe King. Think of Indiana Jones with about 90% more buffoonery and you're there.

The old-school interface may take a little getting used to, but this classic adventure is worth downloading, particularly for fans of the genre. It also offers full speech, giving it more of a vibrant feel than some older point 'n' clicks.

Available from GoG, there's no messing about needed to get it working on modern operating systems, despite being originally released back in 1995.

23. Hawken

Jump behind the controls of your own mech and fight it out in a gloriously realised future world with Hawken. They're the agile kind of mech rather than the slow lumbering tanks of MechWarrior Online, so purists should head there instead, but still, this is a change of pace from blitzing around in soldier uniforms with automatic rifles.

Expect to pay to upgrade your starter mech if you enjoy the action, but you can jump in and get the flavour of the thing without paying a single penny.

Hawken is also one of the higher-profile games to support Oculus Rift. No one may own one of those virtual reality headsets yet, but using one as a giant mech sounds fun, right?

24. TrackMania Nations Forever

Prefer cars that fly through the air, performing tricks like a 20 year-old Tony Hawk, rather than ones that come with a £20,000 bill should you nudge them against a bollard? The OTT style of TrackMania Nations Forever will be hard to resist.

The real laws of physics have little to do with the way this racer plays, but it provides more action than your average power sliding arcade racer as a result. It's racing meets extreme sports with an unlimited rev counter – and that's a great combo.

25. Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall

Played Skyrim or Oblivion? You should at least give the classic Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall a nod. This 1990s RPG is a precursor to those incredibly popular RPGs, and is a bit of a classic in its own right.

Its game world is many times the size of any of its successors, and indeed it's the size of a continent, one absolutely packed with atmosphere. You might not all be able to stomach the old-fashioned visuals, but it's worth investigating if you want to see where Skyrim came from.

It's available direct from Bethesda. The publisher started offering it for free to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game. As if we didn't feel old enough already.

26. Tyrian 2000

Technically, it's been freeware for a while now, but Good Old Games' re-release of this title in December 2010 breathed new life into one of the PC's most beloved shooters. Tyrian 2000 offers loads of levels, a ridiculous amount of ship customisation, and some of the best Easter eggs around.

If you get bored of the top-down shooting, try typing 'destruct' at the title screen to see its weapons-grade version of the classic Scorched Earth. Alternatively, unlock the ship that looks like a carrot, and banana bomb your way to victory.

27. Wolfenstein 3D

Want to know what FPS games started out like? You can now play the classic Wolfenstein 3D from Id Software directly in your browser.

Despite being released all the way back in 1992, Wolfenstein 3D is still fun for a few minutes' blasting. And you can even head straight to the final level where you battle a giant robot Hitler. It's the stuff of nightmares. And despite the kind of antics developers get up to, we're not sure they could get away with pitting you against a giant Hitler today.

28. World of Warcraft

No, you haven't missed the front-page story suggesting Blizzard is in such desperate need it has had to make World of Warcraft totally free-to-play. But you can play the first 20 character levels without paying a penny these days.

Experts may be able to blast though these initial levels in just a few hours, but if you're yet to walk into Azeroth, it'll keep you busy for a long, long time. Watch out, though, World of Warcraft is… a mite addictive.

This freebie is also worth investigating if you haven't played WoW since the early days. While much of the content added in recent years has focused on high-end players, the whole game has evolved.

29. Team Fortress 2

It may be an old vet in gaming terms, but nothing offers so much crazy fun as Team Fortress 2. Unlike most shooters of its age, players are still there to have a good time rather than hurl abuse at newcomers, and there's no shortage of cool toys to have fun with. Endlessly silly and amazingly fresh, it's still one of the shooter genre's kings, free-to-play or not.

As you might guess, there are some micro-transactions involved. You can buy additional items, often used to customise your character. You can create your own. It's fun, and gets you even more involved in TF2. Those cheeky devils at Valve know what they're doing.

30. Reprisal

Populous returns in Reprisal – a gorgeous pixel-art reinvention. As a God, use your powers to build a civilisation and crush all who oppose you – but don't think magic powers will make things too easy. Best of all, it's playable right from your web browser.

The game's maker said Reprisal was made as an homage to the early God games. There's now also a larger, paid version called Reprisal Universe – but there's more than just a taster on offer in the browser version.

31. Realm of the Mad God

Online RPGs have never been so streamlined, or so insane. Join groups of up to 85 players to fight through an insanely lethal world that borrows as much inspiration from bullet hell shooters as hack and slash action games.

When you die, you die for good... but Realm of the Mad God is so fast that rolling a new character and jumping back in from the start is no real hardship.

32. Alien Swarm

Did you know that Valve, maker of Half-Life and Portal, made a multiplayer twin stick shooter? Well it did.

Alien Swarm is a co-op experience that sees you face-off against hordes of aliens, and it really has more in common with Left 4 Dead than the RPGs that are commonly called free-to-play. The look is quite different, though. You see the action from high above, not that it's enough to stop the white knuckle effect when the blasting really heats up.

This is a gem many people have missed out on, so look it up on Steam now.

33. DC Universe Online

DC Universe Online lets you create a hero and leap into action in the streets of Gotham and Metropolis, either backing up Batman or signing up with your favourite super-villains.

The outside street action is pretty bland, but the dungeon design includes just about everyone from the DC Universe to fight or team up with, and is just as much fun whether you want to form your own Justice League or live the life of a super-powered lone wolf. (But not Wolverine.)

It's one for superhero fans only, perhaps, but who wouldn't want to try out life as a flying super villain for a few hours?

34. Fallen London

Descend if you dare into a vision of Victorian London abducted by a swarm of bats and moved to the edge of Hell. Fallen London is the digital equivalent of a classic 'choose your own adventure' book.

Slightly simplistic mechanics don't spoil a gorgeously written world of demons and social intrigue, and while there are some social elements, you don't need to annoy friends to make the most of your new life in this surreal underworld.

35. Auto Club Revolution

There are plenty of free-to-play driving games out there, but one of the few not tied to a single car-maker is Auto Club Revolution. Instead, there are two – it was made in association with BMW and Renault.

The game lets you drive some of the world's best cars for free – especially if you play through the BMW Experience, which gives you the Series M Coupe as your starter vehicle. Auto Club Revolution features racing, driving for pleasure, and a huge community waiting to welcome you onto assorted real-world courses.

If you want to get your hands dirty, you can also customise each car with actual parts, and give them a full makeover with decals and other neat touches.

36. Spelunky

You can now get Spelunky on all sorts of platforms – it's pretty high-profile for an indie title. But it began its life PC-only, and it's this original 'non HD' Classic version you can still get for free today.

Spelunky is about anger, hate and, most of all, death. It looks like a simple enough platform game – an Indiana Jones pastiche set in a cavern full of tricks and traps – and it is.

There's nothing complicated about it. Every enemy is avoidable. Every trap can be dealt with.

The catch is that every time you play, the entire game is randomised. In one game you'll stumble through screen after screen of spiked horrors and swarming monsters; in the next, the software will bend over backwards to give you gold and help you on your way.

The trick is learning the ropes, figuring out how to get past every obstacle, and then doing so perfectly as and when the game throws things at you. You will die. You will die a lot. But the important thing is that in death, you learn.

You discover ways of stealing from the shopkeepers who inhabit the levels, or find out that the damsels you can rescue for a health boost can just as easily be taken to the nearest sacrificial altar, or thrown around to trigger traps before you go down yourself.

You learn how each randomised world ticks and which equipment will give you a fighting chance. And then you'll die some more. And scream. And restart. Again.

37. Super House of Dead Ninjas

This is one of the most enjoyable Flash games in recent memory, which is also available as an expanded commercial-but-cheap release on Steam if you fancy more toys and full-screen action.

The free version of Super House of Dead Ninjas feels like a complete game in its own right though, as you guide the Crimson Ninja from the top of a demon-infested tower to the horror waiting at ground floor.

Randomly generated adventures keep things fresh, with the speed of the action more a challenge than any individual enemy. You can handle any situation in front of you – you just don't get to stop to catch your breath. Ever. Until you die, of course.

38. Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun got a bad rap at its original release back in 1999. It was too slow and buggy, people said, but many of the issues were patched out. If you remember turning your nose up, it's time to take another look.

EA made the game freeware to celebrate the release of Command & Conquer 4 back in 2010. It didn't work too well – C&C 4 hardly resurrected the brand.

39. Quake Live

This is how far the web has come: one of the best deathmatch games ever created is now available to play from within the confines of your browser.

Well, technically, no; it's not actually in it – Quake Live uses a plug-in and then goes full-screen when you play – but the spirit is still there.

Any modern computer is now able to handle Quake 3's modest demands, and the game's blisteringly fast action makes it quite unlike any modern shooter. Forget realism. Forget objectives. Sometimes, all you need is a rocket launcher, a perfectly timed shot and the lamentation of the noobs as time permits.

Beware, though: if you haven't played id Software's classic shooter for a while, the frenetic pace of the online action might be terrifying.

40. Beneath a Steel Sky

Beneath a Steel Sky is a classic adventure from British developer Revolution, the maker of the Broken Sword games.

It's a sci-fi adventure with more than a hint of Blade Runner flavour. Like all the best point 'n' click titles, though, there's also more than just a little humour in the script.

A Remastered version is available for iPad and iPhone, but it's the original you'll find on Mac and PC. While the game runs through the ScummVM system, you can grab it on GoG to avoid any fiddling about.

If you're still thirsty, check out Lure of the Temptress, another Revolution adventur.

41. Slender

The question of whether games are art or not is a dull debate that has raged on for years. But making you terrified from one minute to the next is an art in itself. An art Slender has down.

Although it's just a simple 3D exploration jaunt where you look for eight pages seemingly scribbled by the Slender Man's victims, this game is terrifying. Our monster in this little slice of horror is a tall faceless man who stalks you, hunts you.

Set in a dark forest with nothing but a flashlight to keep you company, if this doesn't give you chills, nothing else on this list will. Once you've completed the Eight Pages, you can also check out the slightly beefier horror-adventure Slender: The Arrival. It's not free, but is a good way to test your nerve.

42. Kingdom Rush

Nuggets of tower defence gaming are perfect if you want the sort of light strategy that gives you a feeling of power without sucking away your whole day to provide it. And Kingdom Rush is one of the best tower defence experiences you can get.

As well as being available on mobile phones and tablets, you can play it directly in your browser. It's a true smash, offering great balance and more charm than a half-dozen other free TD titles combined. There's also a sequel available, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, when you've picked the bones of the original clean. Which you probably will do if you fire up Kingdom Rush. Trust us.

43. Digital: A Love Story

Remember the excitement of logging into your first BBS? What if you'd found something more than just files and chatter and naked pictures of assorted Star Trek actresses?

To explain Digital: A Love Story would be giving away too much, so let's just say that it's a great nostalgia trip with a bit of future-gazing thrown in for free. Played out entirely on 1988-style bulletin boards, it starts when you respond to an email from a lonely sounding girl called Emilia.

The relationship plays out as a hacker's romance as you jump between BBS systems to uncover a conspiracy, mostly interacting by firing off emails to the characters. You never get to see what you've said, only the responses, which adds an unusual but effective disconnect to the conversations.

It's not a long game – only an hour or so of action at most – but it's a testament to the writing that you quickly get sucked into what is basically just typing out a lot of phone numbers. The authentic sounding music and sound effects help: the sweet siren song of a modem connecting still sends a chill down the spine.

44. Neptune's Pride 2

Where some free-to-play games want to consume hours of your life every day, Neptune's Pride 2 only wants a handful of minutes.

It's an intergalactic version of Risk you play with real people, over a period of weeks or months. You can forge alliances and work together, but every player has to know there can only be one winner… the one who 'owns' more than 50% of the galaxy.

Every day you earn more money and make your strategic decisions. It's like chess, but with star systems instead of pawns. If you want to deep-dive into a game with some friends, Neptune's Pride 2 is great. But be warned: this stuff can ruin friendships.

45. Dwarf Fortress

If you find games like SimCity or Civilisation a little too simple, Dwarf Fortress is the game for you. Technically, its full name is Slaves to Armok: God of Blood: Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress, but absolutely nobody calls it that.

It procedurally generates a whole work, complete with its own history, in very (very) basic visuals. But to get hung up on the graphics is to miss the point of Dwarf Fortress.

You can build your own fortress, or go out adventuring. It is not easy or at all forgiving, though. When adventuring, it's roguelike in style, meaning that when you're dead, you're dead. Casual this is not. And as the game looks like it has been drawn with a typewriter, you will need to use your imagination a bit.

However, Dwarf Fortress is quite unlike anything else on this list.

46. Sarien.net

Remember the Sierra adventures of old? Sarien.net revives them, and makes them multiplayer – at least, partly. Technically, you still play on your own, but you can see other players wandering around the world as you do. That said, there were only a few players online when we last tried the site.

Sarien has access to King's Quest I-III, Space Quest I-II, Police Quest, and a lesser-known game, The Black Cauldron. These are titles from the early days of games, so be aware that the visuals are not going to wow you. For a better-looking adventure, check out the remakes of King's Quest, available online.

We've hesitated to mention this one before due to legal questions over it, but now it's been officially approved by Activision, there's nothing stopping you from jumping right in.

47. Vindictus

The sequel to a Korean MMO virtually no one we know has even heard of, Vindictus doesn't have the clout of something like Dota 2, but it offers something quite different too. The visual style is distinctly Asian, giving it an unusual feel in a world of fairly West-friendly free-to-play role-players.

It is an online RPG, but one focused on hack and slash action over questing and levels. It looks great thanks to the Source engine, and the combat is enough to get you past the inherently grindy nature of much of the progression curve. Arachnophobes beware though – the tutorial has one of the biggest spiders you've ever seen, and yes, you do have to get right up into its face to fight it.

48. Desktop Dungeons

Ah, the quest you can complete without ruining your appetite for monster slaying. Desktop Dungeons is as simple as heroics get – really, the entire game is about fighting your way up the local monsters' organisation chart without picking a fight with something capable of crushing you back.

It's Rogue in style – meaning when you die it's really game over – but without the usual complexity, and it's still very moreish. This is the perfect way of killing a boring lunchtime.

49. Cave Story

This is a classic Japanese freeware game with a lot of shooting, even more jumping, and a five year development time that still barely explains where all the great ideas came from.

Cave Story is a little fiddly to get running, but an absolute must-play that's influenced a great many other indie developers since it came out.

50. FlightGear

With the new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator not arriving until 2015, if you want to indulge the aviation nerd within you, FlightGear is currently one of your best bets.

FlightGear is free, with extensive terrain mapping, lots of aircraft, support for multiple desktops, and more. You can even download the source code if you want to get deep into its guts.

It's not the prettiest game, mind, and if you're after action you're much better off with something like War Thunder. This is a flight simulator, not a war game.

51. Elders of Madness

However detailed games get there will always be a place for the top-down 2D shooter that requires little know-how and maximum concentration. Elders of Madness delivers on this promise in all the pixellated glory you want from an indie shooter and as you might expect from the name, there's a detailed story mode to get your teeth stuck into.

It's not as easy as you might expect and the presence of various quotations along the way could even teach you a thing or two about literature.

52. Wilbler Park

Upon entering Wilbler Park you may think about why you are wasting time inside a game that is nothing more than a wander about through a wide vista with all there is to break it up a pair of binoculars that only seem to give you a blurry close-up of boring objects. Give it some time though.

Eventually you'll be climbing to the top of the game's world and then able to use your trusty binoculars to zoom in on…well, we'll leave that to you.

53. Murder Simulator v.666

Room for another PC local multiplayer in your life? Then Murder Simulator v.666 will be your cup of tea. Playable for between two and four players, the game features a gun that makes things inexplicably pink (yes pink, not red) and as players cannot jump they have to use a series of lifts to be able to get around the levels.

There is even the ability to create your own levels and then import them into the game to play against your friends. The pixellated madness might not look like much but it's something to be admired.

54. OpenTTD

Building a transport system around a virtual world might not be the most appealing thing to a large swathe of the online gaming population but don't write off OpenTTD before you've given it a try. Transport Tycoon, which was created by Chris Sawyer of Rollercoaster Tycoon fame (TT came first incidentally), forms the basis for this version that is exactly the same as the original except that it is online.

The open sourced version has been kept alive by a motley band of enthusiasts and it has never felt so good to build stuff. Nothing gets closer to OpenTTD in allowing you to build an extensive transport system in a fictional nation. No, not even Sim City.

55. Alleyway

Old Nintendo games have found quite a home online thanks to the wealth of top-notch emulators out there, but one of the best to pick up and play straight from a browser is Alleyway. The premise of the game is exactly the same as it was on the Game Boy: control Mario inside a long metal tube and help him to destroy a series of blocks at the top of the screen.

Mario's flying craft eventually gets smaller and smaller with the ball moving at a faster pace, and your eyes will take quite a pounding.

56. Pandemic 2

There isn't anything more morbid than wishing disease on someone else and that is literally the aim of Pandemic 2. You get to choose a disease from the outset and it is then your aim to make it spread across the globe as stealthily as possible by using a number of parameters and to prevent governments taking measures to stop it escalating further.

With an in game world population of some six billion you'll have your work cut out and you win by…causing everyone to die.

57. Track and Field 2

Become Usain Bolt or Tom Daley in a virtual world where button bashing is the real winner. Track & Field 2 harps back to a time when sports games were anything but realistic and the faster you were at hammering on your controller the better.

It lets you complete an entire Olympic Games campaign across a variety of sports and you collect points with the hope of eventually obtaining a gold medal. Oh, and you might need to replace your keyboard.

58. Roby Baggio's Magical Kicks

Ever played FIFA 15? Good, because the Roby Baggio's Magical Kicks game that Roberto Baggio endorses is about as far away as you can get in the football genre. A favourite of school kids everywhere in the late 1990s as one of the original games that could be played in browser, Magical Kicks was and still is fiendishly difficult to master and not even Baggio's wisdom can help you get the ball in the net.

Every time you kick the ball the wind changes and there's always a wall plus a goalie to contend with. If you find any of the modern football games too easy then just give this a blast.

59. 2048

If you haven't heard of this ridiculously addictive numbers based game then where have you been? The aim of the game is to achieve the number 2048 by only moving left and right with squares being removed when they contain the same number and bump into each other.

It starts off easy with just 2 and 4 but once you get to the higher numbers it's neigh-on impossible to reach the magic 2048. Needless to say, I'm yet to complete it…

60. Portal

The Valve version of Portal, where you use a teleporting gun to get a boiler-suit clad man through a series of levels, has been reimagined as a completely free 2D version right in your browser.

Anyone that played the original copy will be thrilled by the free online rehash and find themselves wiling away the hours using the trusty portal gun to try and complete what is a simple concept but at the same time fiendishly difficult.

61. Tetris

Old Game Boy games port extremely well to browsers and the building blocks game of yesteryear is no exception. Tetris works on the same premise as its much older sibling albeit with a splash of colour and you'll surprise yourself by how easy it still is.

That's until the blocks start stacking up and before you know it, it's game over. There's no elaborate back story to Tetris except that it's about making sure you eliminate the bricks before they stack up. Surely there's metaphor in there somewhere?

62. GeoGuessr

Working out where a location is from a photo was once limited to mere aerial shots but now Google has meticulously Streetviewed the planet there is an even more taxing game to be played: Geoguessr. The premise is simple: you're shown pictures of real-world locations and then encouraged to plot on a map where you think the place is.

Points are awarded for how close you get and the developers have created versions for various cities across the world such as London, New York City and Paris. It's by no means easy because most of the locations thrown up are drawn at random and range from random expanses of land to nondescript office buildings in the backstreets of the City of London.

63. Ricochet Heroes

Final Fantasy is and remains one of the greatest RPGs of all time so why not combine it with a pinball game and see what happens? That's clearly what the creators of Ricochet Heroes thought of during a night at the bar whilst playing a pinball machine and the result is this beauty.

The layout is clean and features a roster of characters (the pinballs), dialogue and monsters that have to be killed by bouncing off them numerous times before their health is done.

64. Silhouette

Like a murder mystery and beat-em-up all rolled into one, just without much of the mystery, Silhouette is another local multiplayer that presents a number of maps where one player plays the victim and tries to evade the other, who is the murderer or Silhouette (complete with Psycho-esque attack weapon).

Each take one side of the keyboard and battle it out to see who can stay alive for the longest, and as the two of you get closer together the turns get shorter before *BAM* you're dead.

65. Escape Goat

If you didn't know already, goats that practice witchcraft go to jail and our bearded friend that is the subject of Escape Goat has been incarcerated for that very deed. Help him escape from the confines of the brick and mortar in this top-down platform where our noble steed butts and jumps his way out with the help of the player and a mouse.

The free version can be played in browser and should you want to guide our goat on even more adventures there's even a version that can be downloaded from Steam.

66. Fishy Waters

We all know the drill. You head out for a day fishing on the seas with father until disaster strikes and he gets eaten by the kraken! What to do?! That's right. Get back out on the seas to catch all kinds of different fish, sell them and upgrade your boat so that you can eventually rescue your dad and release him from the bowels of the kraken.

Catching fish in Fishy Waters is as easy as pressing spacebar to put the bait down but that's where the simplicity ends and you are forced to use the arrow keys in a number of combinations to land your catch.

67. Life in the West

Contrary to what the name may suggest this game is not a simulation about what it's like to live in Western Europe or a comic book series that allow you to wander around the Wild West. Life in the West is a mock-up of Kanye West's Twitter account where you spout unadulterated nonsense and get rewarded for it.

The faster you type the more Kanye Points come your way and with those points you can buy new followers such as Xzibit, Barack Obama and our personal favourite Fake Kanye. Some of the Tweets are genuinely quite funny and if nothing else the authenticity of the interface makes you feel like you've become king Kanye for the day.

68. Republia Times

If you once had a dream to edit your own newspaper then Republia Times has answered all your prayers. The game allows you to take on the role of the editor in chief of the Republia Times just after a war has ended against the rebels.

Your remit is to increase the loyalty towards the government by choosing the right stories and putting them in the correct places on the page, with one small catch - the government has your family! Messages will come through on the screen from rebels attempting to make your switch sides and the time to deadline speeds up the further you get through the game.

69. New Star Soccer

One of the best football games on any smartphone platform is New Star Soccer and it can also be played for free in browser.

Take your player from the Conference North or South all the way up to the Premier League and live the life of the footballer along the way in this addictive top-down football simulator.

70. Racehorse Tycoon

Owning a racehorse is beyond almost all people unless you've tried your hand at Racehorse Tycoon. It doesn't have the extensive feel of Rollercoaster Tycoon or Transport Tycoon but what it loses in simulation it more than makes up for in good old fashioned fun and straight out addictiveness.

Pick a horse, trainer, mode of transportation and even the food for your horse to guide him to victory. There's even the chance to place bets on any horse competing and satisfy your gambling urges.

71. Ambulance Madness

On Grand Theft Auto there was always that one friend who would insist on stealing the first ambulance they came across and then running down as many people in their path whilst another person wondered what it would be like to run missions as an ambulance driver.

The latter will find their place in Ambulance Madness where you use a GTA-esque top-down view to drive to patients and treat them on the way to hospital. You're against the clock and the patient's health goes down rapidly so don't crash into any cars on the way to the hospital as they will slow you down rapidly.

72. Asteroids

Where Nintendo GameBoy games do well online, the same can be said for the ones that used to be magically built into tables like Asteroids. Nothing has changed from the old version of Asteroids to this one with the aim still to break up the pieces of rock using your spacecraft and to avoid being destroyed by UFOs.

The arrow keys make it even easier to play than with a sticky joystick and buttons that have been scarred by years of spilled beers.

73. AdVenture Capitalist

Anyone that's owned a lot of diverse businesses will be put off by AdVenture Capitalist but for the rest of us there's plenty of fun to be had. You start off your entrepreneurial life selling lemons from a stall and attempt to eventually make your way up to ownership of an oil company with some pizza, donuts and ice hockey along the way.

Eventually investors will circle and try to grab a piece of the action, and for a game that starts off as a glorified click-a-thon it's surprisingly addictive.

74. Stick Cricket

Cricket remains one of the few sports that England can lay claim to being in the top 10 of after having a hand in inventing it. Stick Cricket is the internet's best representation of leather on willow and it's all about the timing.

The names of the players are a few years old yet any cricket fan worth their weight will have a smile on their face at this fact and if that doesn't please you then the gameplay definitely will.

75. Promotion Wars

Wrestling used to be up there alongside UFC in the contact sports ranks in the 1990s and 2000s when the feuding parties of WCW and WWF were separate and it created quite a stir. Promotion Wars beams you back to that time with a management sim that is basically the same as the earlier versions of Football Manager except that you are managing a wrestling promotion as opposed to a football club.

It covers everything from signing players, creating stables and establishing feuds to booking shows and deciding the results before hand. A hearty band of developers have opened up a Promotion Wars 2014 website and forum where the game is offered along with a number of different scenarios that make it remain relevant and thus it remains one of the better free management sims out there.

76. A Grain of Truth

Adventure based games that require you to simply click and explore never get old, and A Grain of Truth follow this lead as you make your way across the endless plains of grass capturing stones and cloud along the way.

Your task is to guide Myosotis, the heroine of the tale, across the grass and take in everything that comes with it. There are small puzzles to solve, areas to examine and cloud catchers to climb, with enough here for even the most seasoned of gamers to get stuck in to.

77. Stick War

Stick Death was a website in the late 1990s that allowed you to watch stick figures created in paint battle against each other with a soundtrack of heavy metal music that had more than a little Celebrity Death Match about it.

The good news is that you can now partake in those battles yourself in Stick War. The basis of the game is to build an army through mining gold and then attempt to take on other territories, destroy them and steal the land. It feels a bit like a downgraded version of Command & Conquer, yet it is still quite fun watching sticks kill each other.

78. Big Mama's Salon

From the outset Big Mama's Salon doesn't strike you as something that's worth a second look, but after you've given our first haircut we can see why this one has quite a following. Your task is to help Big Mama to serve customers in her new salon that grows as she becomes more successful.

Click to clean, cut and dry plus attempt to keep your customers from getting frustrated by offering them magazines. You even have to click to get the money at the end of it and the frenetic clicking of the higher levels will make you feel like you've actually been cutting hair all day.

79. Earn to Die

Zombie apocalypse makes a great subject for games and movies alike, which is exactly what you'll find by playing Earn to Die. The aim of the game is simple: use a car to plough through zombies and earn money depending on how far you get or the way that you manage to knock them out.

At the end of each day there's the chance to upgrade your vehicle with cool extras such as turbines, guns, huge tyres and fuel. The further you get the better the decrepit heaps aka cars become and the better your ability to smash up zombies. All in all it's basically an afternoon out on the Hills Have Eyes set.

80. 18 Hole Crazy Golf

Crazy golf doesn't just have to be something reserved for seaside outings thanks to the quirky 18 Hole Crazy Golf.

The levels start off very easy but get progressively harder so that you're attempting to get past all manner of obstacles including bunkers with nothing more than a trusty putter and golf ball. There's really nothing more to it than that.

81. Shop Empire 3

Reports of the demise of the high street are greatly exaggerated in Shop Empire 3 where you build up medieval looking multi-storey shopping centres to service the citizens complete with elevators and all the staff that you would expect to see.

Shoppers often chat away to each other all about your shopping centre and the ultimate aim is to make as much money as possible whilst at the same time keeping your shoppers happy.

82. Zombie Trailer Park

When the time finally comes and we have to start fighting zombies then there are enough games to prepare us for this eventuality to mean that we can fight them off, right? Zombie Trailer Park is another of that category and involves you operating a trailer park in the most efficient way possible by building trailers where zombie fighters are created.

The further you get the more persistent and larger the zombies get and it'll be your job to stop them getting inside the trailer park to pilfer your goods.

83. Ultimate Football Management 13/14

The football management sim genre has been dominated by Championship Manager then Football Manager since the early 90s, yet there is one free game that goes by the name of Ultimate Football Management 13/14 that gets closer than any other.

You take control of a team in one of Europe's top leagues and players are rated according to a star system, which all has to be taken into consideration when choosing your lineup. There's an incredibly easy transfer system that makes buying anyone pretty simple and the game ends if you get sacked.

84. Pixel Box Worlds

Ever seen people playing Minecraft and wondered what all the fuss it about? Well now you can create 2D worlds in pixellated glory on Pixel Box Worlds without any of the intricacies that puts many off Minecraft.

Pick from pages of different small boxes to place on your landscape and before starting off it really pays off to look through some of the custom worlds to get the gist of what Pixel Box Worlds is all about. It's not the most exciting of games but you can create some very cool looking landscapes.

85. Road of the Dead

Yes this is another zombie entry but they make for good fun games so we figured, why not?! Road of the Dead sees you take the role of a worried citizen trying to escape the city limits, which have been overrun by, yes you've guessed it, zombies.

One word of warning: whatever you do don't crash into any cars that are on fire as you will immediately blow up.

86. Pool Live Pro

Yahoo has recently done away with its online games, which included the addictive Yahoo Pool, and in its place is Pool Live Pro. If hustling is your game then there's no shortage of opponents to play against considering anyone that signs on to play pool on Yahoo is open for a game.

As you get better you level up and gain locations to play pool instead of just the motorcycle hall. If playing pool is your thing then this game will be your new thing.

87. Decision 3

It often feels like zombie shooters could have a top 100 list of their own, although Decision 3 is another more than worthy member of the overall top list of games. The top down shooter is simple to play and sees you roam around a barren landscape with an army of civilians and soldiers to stave off the scores of zombies that only grow in number and ferocity as the game progresses.

The in-game animation sequences are exceptionally well drawn for a game that is definitely worth a look.

88. Mortal Kombat

Makes no bones about it. The original Mortal Kombat set a standard along with Street Fighter for the fighting genre and it's the fully old school version of Mortal Kombat that you will find here.

Anyone that played Mortal Kombat way back when will recognise the soundtrack and the character names of Scorpion, Sub Zero et al. No fancy graphics have been added at all and the game feels slightly slow these days but nostalgia-wise this title still holds significant value.

89. Seedling

You play a young boy abandoned at birth in front of a house in a quirky top-down adventure game aptly known as Seedling.

Taking more than the odd cue from Pokemon, your aim is to speed around the landscape picking up various items along the way and remembering the house you are left in front of holds all the answers. Or does it? It's your job to find out.

90. A second chance

It's often more fun to deliberately lose a game than win it and A second chance is exactly the kind of game where that it the case. Winning the game is incredibly easy as all you have to do is instruct a group of astronauts to enter a space shuttle bound for an asteroid and successfully detonate a bomb on the asteroid before returning to earth.

Very easy. Trying to wreck the mission is a much better option and we'll leave you to find out the plethora of different ways that this is possible.

91. Strike Force Heroes 2

Deathmatches have been defined by the Call of Duty's and Battlefield's of the world and Strike Force Heroes 2 does admirably in its effort to bring this to the platform genre. Fight inside a space ship where gravity is at a premium against a band of aliens that invade your ship and are fiendishly difficult to eliminate.

If you're killed then a respawn takes place within seconds and, even though the controls are tricky, there's enough here that you'll want to try and save the spaceship from destruction.

92. Bubble Spinner 2

Like Bust-a-Move then you will love Bubble Spinner 2. Shoot bubbles at a hexagonal collection of different bubbles to try and combine three or more bubbles in order to break it down into a smaller hexagon.

Chain reactions are the way to get even further in the game yet it eventually becomes similar to a game of Tetris in that you are constantly looking at what is coming up next in order to develop some kind of strategy - something that you will definitely need.

93. 3 Pandas in Japan

Puzzle platform games made up of pandas captured in Japan are thin on the ground so our luck was in when we discovered 3 Pandas in Japan.

Guide three pandas through variety of amusing levels where you help the population at large to overcome tasks that simply wouldn't be possible witthout a trio of furry friends on hand. The tall one, small one and fat one all have their special abilities, and can even be combined to see off yakuza gangsters!

94. Shipwreck Island Escape

Your cruise with grandpa that was going so well until a storm struck and you found yourself on a desert island. Whilst you don't look like Tom Hanks in Castaway, Shipwreck Island Escape still works on the task of escaping from a desert island with a cartoony style that plumps for characatured representations of the main protagonists.

Grandpa directs you off to search for sticks and do various jobs that are miraculously and rather hilariously completed by the old man when you have returned and, although this is a short one, there's still enough of a puzzle to be solved for it to present some difficulty.

95. Ghostly Asylum

Asylums are not a great place to be stuck inside and when it is an abandoned asylum plagued by ghosts then that "not a great place" moniker advances ever further.

The aim of Ghostly Asylum is to work your way around to try and escape out of a place that gets progressively more spooky as you go along. Pick up clues and try to eventually find your way out in this fiendishly difficult puzzler.

96. Hacker's Escape

Picture this: you're a hacker that has been just been locked in an old storage room by a bunch of strangers that entered your house. Hacker's Escape represent the only way to get out of the dusty room and you collect various clues that are strewn around the room to assist in your escape.

The key to all this is working out how to get onto the one of the two computers in the room that works by cracking a four character keycode. We'll leave you there to carry on by yourself…

97. Super Mario 63

Fancy some Super Mario fun without having to pay for it? Super Mario 63 is your game. Built with the same music, style and pizazz of the Italian pizza man's earlier adventures, Super Mario 63 is an excellent representation of of the original Nintendo creation just with a slightly updated take on it.

Basically if you've played Mario games in the past then play this now as you will not be disappointed

98. Jacksmith

Taking on the role of small-town blacksmith might not sound like the most exciting of games, however, Jacksmith takes that thought and smashes it into smithereens. Your aim is the arm a hearty band of warriors with various different types of weaponry to see off all manner of different combatants.

Much of your success depends on how much work you put in prior to the battle in a range of minigames to construct the right weapons to win. Battles do start to get slightly monotonous after a while although it'll be of little worry when you realise your hard work building weapons is the one reason you're winning.

99. Jaws: The Text Experience

Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws is meticulously recreated in a text style that looks like it wouldn't be out of place on a ZX Spectrum. Jaws: The Text Experience comes complete with an old-school version of the trademark soundtrack and allows you to become jaws by eating anything or anyone that comes in your way.

You score higher by eating more things, evading death, which can come courtesy of electricity running under the ocean, and win the game by becoming 100 percent full.

100. Warfare 1917

We're currently in the midst of the 100 year anniversary of The Great War and so it's appropriate that Warfare 1917 comes in as our final entry. The flat out strategy game allows you to take charge of a campaign as either England or Germany with a campaign map that has a distinct hint of Dad's Army about it.

It's all about trench warfare and taking ground against your opponent, something that Warfare 1917 does with ease and whole battlefield experience created is incredibly impressive.

4K

4K is the hottest techy buzzword of 2014, and it's a technology that's rewriting the rulebook when it comes to image quality.

It affects not just the world of 4K TV and cinema, but also cameras and image capture, smartphones and tablets, computer monitors and PC games - practically anything that displays images or records video.

4K TV sets are now available from most of the major TV manufacturers, but they're merely the tip of a very cool technology iceberg.

So what, we hear you ask, is 4K really all about?

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiOEgz2eG_c

What is 4K?

The headline fact is simple and dramatic: 4K Ultra HD TVs (also known as UHD TVs) deliver four times as much detail as 1080p Full HD, that's eight million pixels compared to two million pixels.

What that means in terms of potential image clarity is more fine detail, greater texture and an almost photographic emulsion of smoothness.

But this is just for starters. Prior to a roll-out of TV services, broadcasters are working out what else they can upgrade under the 4K banner. In the UK, a working group chaired by the BBC and BSkyB are mulling over every possible tweak, from higher frame rates to greater contrast and a wider colour spectrum. Some of the biggest names in the video industry including Samsung, LG and Sony have split-off to form another group called the UHD Alliance, which will work to set standards for the new format.

But talk to the engineers steering this 4K broadcast bandwagon and they'll tell you everything spec-wise is up for grabs. If this indicates to you that the 4K standard is anything but set in stone, you'd be correct.

Ultra HD is going to be a work in progress for years to come, but that doesn't mean you should wait for the dust to settle before improving your image.

Difference between Ultra HD and 4K

Technically, "Ultra High Definition" is actually a derivation of the 4K digital cinema standard. However while your local multiplex shows images in native 4096 x 2160 4K resolution, the new Ultra HD consumer format has a slightly lower resolution of 3840 X 2160.

This is one reason why some brands prefer not to use the 4K label at all, sticking with Ultra HD or UHD instead. However, the numerical shorthand looks likely to stick. As a broad brush label it's so much snappier!

Why should I care about 4K Ultra HD?

There are many reasons why 4K should make you rethink your next TV purchase (actually, there are eleven and you can read about them here), not all of them immediately obvious.

Photographers who routinely view their work on an HD TV are seeing but a fraction of the detail inherent in their pictures when they view them at 2160p.

A 4K display reveals so much more nuance and detail – the difference can be astonishing. While 3D has proved to be a faddish diversion, 4K comes without caveats. Its higher resolution images are simply better.

The higher pixel density of a 4K panel also enable you get much closer without the grid-like structure of the image itself becoming visible –this means you can comfortably watch a much larger screen from the same seating position as your current Full HD panel. Currently all available 4K Ultra HD TVs are in excess of 50-inches.

Projectors

While 4K UHD TVs are on the fast track, the same can't be said for video projectors. Only Sony offers 4K models, the high-end quasi pro VPL-VW1100ES and the home cinema friendly VPL-VW500ES.

Currently there's no consumer 4K solution for LCD, D-ILA or DLP projectors, although that's likely to change in 2015, when Texas Instruments is expected to begin shipping its first 4K DLP chipset for home hardware.

How expensive is an Ultra HD TV?

The first wave of 4K TVs were large, really large. Both Sony and LG launched with 84-inch panels, the KD-84X9005 and 84LM960V respectively.

Consequently, they were saddled with price tags in excess of £20,000/$30,000. Not to be outdone, Samsung weighed in with the 85-inch S9 at £35,000/$55,000, clearly aimed at footballers and oligarchs!

However, prices have fallen dramatically as screen sizes have shrunk and brands have predictably embarked on a tit for tat price war. You'll now find 4K TVs for less than $1000, though we'd encourage you to be careful when choosing one - a 4K resolution won't necessarily give you a better picture if the processing electronics behind the panel are bad.

Generally speaking, a market-leading 65-inch 4K TV like the Sony KD-65X9005B will set you back a little over $3,500/£3,000... and they're getting cheaper.

So how small will 4K Ultra HD screens get?

In the short term, screen sizes are likely to stabilise at 55-inches and upwards. That's because as the screen size shrinks the advantage of having such a pixel dense display starts to diminish. There's also an irrefutable relationship between screen resolution and viewing distances.

While seating will vary from home to home, generally speaking a large 4K TV will provide an upgrade for a smaller 1080p screen. However, the 4K resolution will ultimately be about more than just definition.

High frame rate UHD broadcasting could have an even greater impact than resolution when services begin – and the benefits of HFR are not restricted to larger screen sizes. When this second generation 4K UHD breaks cover, expect high-frame rate 4K TVs to drop further down the size scale.

How far should I sit from a 4K TV for the best picture?

4K Ultra HD is a much more intimate viewing experience than Full HD. In many respects, the best way to view 4K is analogous to the way we view films in a cinema. Old style cinemas were shoe-box shaped and most patrons sat typically 3-5 screen heights away, because that was the most comfortable viewing distance.

Contemporary cinemas are wider, and now the optimum viewing distance is 1.5 screen heights back. From this vantage point you can take in all the visual information that's available and comfortably fill your field of vision. Translated to the home, that makes the most comfortable distance to view a 65-inch 4K screen approx. 1.5m. Of course, in many homes that simply isn't practical. Consequently, a large 4K screen is probably best viewed at a distance of between 2-3m; time to rearrange your furniture?

Is 4K OLED on its way?

OLED - organic light emitting diodes - have been around for some time, but producing big screens using this technology has proven to be prohibitively expensive, something which has blighted the chances of OLED televisions becoming mainstream.

Which is a real shame, because OLED technology can be stunning - with vibrant colors, deep blacks and bright whites.

And obviously some companies agree because the likes of LG are labouring away to bring OLED to 4K televisions. "I believe the price and yield rate will be higher immediately and the price will be down," Mr K I Kwon, president of LG Electronics UK, told TechRadar recently.

So, although LG's next 4K OLED television will remain too expensive for mass market, we shouldn't rule out OLED as a big player in the next generation of our televisions just yet.

The standard is expected to be ratified by the ETSI shortly, which is likely to open the floodgates for broadcasters to start launching Ultra HD TV channels.

The main problem with this new standard is that current TVs and set-top boxes will be incompatible, so you'll need to buy new gear to make use of it. You can read more on this in our news story.

What 4K content is available for me to watch?

As of April 2014, Netflix became the first big name to deliver 4K content to the home. When you open the Netflix app on a 4K TV, 4K content will stream automatically where it's available. From the start, that's just House of Cards Season 2, but don't worry - there's LOTS more 4K content ready to be piped into your home.

YouTube offers a nascent 4K channel, but you'll require a powerful PC with a 4K capable graphics card, of which there are few that make economic sense.

But the lack of native 4K isn't quite the big deal you might at first imagine. The truth is today's Ultra HD screens do such a remarkable job with 1080p content that you almost certainly won't feel shortchanged. Rather than just linearly scale, big brand sets utilize all manner of database interpolation to upscale images, and the results are spectacular.

To take advantage of this, Sony has released a selection of Mastered in 4K branded Blu-rays. These are in fact standard 1080p Blu-ray discs, albeit ones based on the best available transfers which take full advantage of available disc capacity. They have also been mastered with a wider colour range than standard Blu-ray platters.

A 2160p upgrade on the Blu-ray standard is inevitable, of course, which will allow for true Ultra High Definition movies to be sold on disc.

Sony meanwhile has rolled out a download service in the USA for owners of Sony 4K TVs – however there's no sign of that arriving in Europe just yet.

How important is HDMI 2.0 to 4K Ultra HD?

HDMI 2.0 is the latest iteration of the HDMI specification. While the existing HDMI 1.4 standard can deliver 4K video, it's limited to 30 frames per second (or 30Hz). While this is fine for most movies, broadcasters are looking for higher frame rates for TV.

HDMI 2.0 increases bandwidth up to 18Gbps and supports 4K Ultra HD at 50/60 fps, with 12-bit 4:2:2 colour (you don't need any special cables for HDMI 2.0 interconnectivity, any current high-speed cable will work). However, only Panasonic currently offers an HDMI 2.0 compatible 4K TV, in the shape of the TX-L65WT600.

So where does that leave the remaining first generation 4K sets? Well both Philips and Samsung, whose 4K panels are coupled to separate connection boxes, say they'll simply introduce new tuners which owners can upgrade to.

Sony and others are looking to implement a firmware fix; by shedding colour sub pixels they reckon they'll be able to fit high frame-rate 4K down a HDMI 1.4 pipe, most likely with 8 bit 4:2:0 colour. How visible this kludge will be remains to be seen. For what it's worth, we've seen JVC's 4K e-Shift3 projectors running 4K at the same colour resolution, and they look spectacular so the omens are good.

I've heard Netflix is going to start streaming in something called HDR. What is that?

HDR, UHD, OLED ... there's no shortage of acronyms in home entertainment.

HDR, or high dynamic range, is a concept borrowed from digital imaging which combines three images - one with normal lighting, one with underexposure and one with overexposure - to give more contrast to an image or video. Netflix will be the first content provider to release HDR video in 2015.

You won't necessarily need a UHD screen to get it, but to really see a difference in picture quality you'll want to step up to the higher resolution.

Quantum Dot sounds like theoretical physics

It does indeed. But unlike some problems in theoretical physics, the solution is already here. Quantum Dot displays (QD for short) are simply LED panels with a thin film of nano-crystals in between the backlight and the display. Manufacturers like LG and Sony claim that this increases color depth by around 30% without adding extra pixels or implementing a wacky algorithm to digitally manipulate the display.

We went hands on with a few QD panels at CES 2015, including the LG UF9400 Quantum Dot 4K UHD TV and Samsung SUHD Curved TV, which uses a variation of Quantum Dot. We liked what we saw, mostly, and especially on the Samsung SUHD. The LG had some issues with oversaturation ... but that may be fixed by the time the TV comes to market in Q2 2015.

Hang on, what about 8K?

If 4K offers four times the resolution of Full HD, then 8K will deliver 16 times the definition. 8K screens comprise a staggering 33 million pixels.

This is an order of magnitude beyond any display technology currently available, and only one broadcaster, Japanese state owned NHK, has publically said it intends to commercialise the technology.

Also known as Super Hi-Vision, a number of 8K trials have been conducted, including acquisition at the London 2012 Olympics. NHK has since pledged to shoot and transmit the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the format.

Of course, bringing 8K to market is a formidable technical challenge. As with 4K, HEVC, is currently favoured as the best compression technology for the job.

However, because the benefits of 8K image definition only really become apparent on screens 84-inches and larger, the format is not seen as a commercially viable platform by most broadcasters and TV manufacturers. If you're waiting to jump from Full HD to 8K, you could be kicking your heels for quite some time.

So should I buy a 4K set now or should I wait?

It depends. If you want the absolute best TV you can get right now and don't mind paying a premium for it, it's a 4K set. If you're buying from one of the top tier manufacturers, you're going to get a good product that's reasonably future-proofed. As we said before, the sets look great. However, don't expect to be watching most of your video content in 4K for another two to three years. And make sure any set you buy has HDMI 2.0 ports (the first wave of 4K TVs used the previous HDMI 1.4 standard).

On the other hand, if you're price sensitive or want to wait until the content side of the equation is a bit more solved, it absolutely makes sense to wait. You're not missing out on much at the moment. There are incredible values to be found in generously-sized 1080p sets right now. And 4K sets are only going to get cheaper.

Best free Android apps

If you have an Android device you really are spoiled for choice when it comes to apps, with the Google Play store being home to thousands of them.

The huge quantity of apps doesn't mean they're all quality - far from it in fact. To make sure you never install a duff app here's our selection of the best 50 you should install right now.

We've carefully divided the apps into categories so you can find the apps that suit your needs, and each one has been carefully chosen to ensure that you have the best apps on your device.

1. Vine

The madly popular social video phenomenon eventually hit Android after an infuriating period of exclusivity on Apple devices, with Android fans now able to see for themselves what all the fuss is about.

Vine focuses on one thing - a simple interface that lets you start and stop recording by touching the screen, and a six-second time limit. Clips are then reviewed, processed and uploaded to the Vine servers, for others to rate.

You might become star. Or just clog up the world's internet pipes with a trillion clips of your cat not doing anything out of its normal behaviour range. Just please don't become the next Dapper Laughs.

2. Snapchat

Snapchat is the messaging app that's taken the world by storm, or at least taken the teen market by storm. The USP is empowering users to send photo messages that "self destruct" after being viewed, leaving no evidence of the crime you may have just committed.

Of course, images can be screen-grabbed should someone send you a particularly well-lit image of their little chap, but that's considered cheating and rather poor form.

3. Twitter

A few short years ago if we'd recommended the official Twitter app as the best resource for tweeting from your Android device, we'd have been laughed off the internet.

However a lot of work has since been put into the official app to help it compete and even surpass third party offerings. New features such as being able to embed tweets within tweets for some sort of tweetception shenanigans, as well as uploading GIFs, are all very welcome.

These new features plus a streamlined interface, a lack of superfluous features some of its competitor apps contain and no ads makes this the best app for firing off a quick tweet.

4. Facebook

Try as you might, there's very little you can do to avoid Facebook, but thankfully the Facebook app for Android has gone through a number of revisions to make using the social networking website on your Android device easier than ever.

The app is fast and stable, with a simplicity that reminds you of the good old days when using Facebook used to be bearable, though we're a little annoyed that Facebook has siphoned off its messaging service to its own standalone Messenger app, which you might also want to download.

5. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most essential apps you can install on your Android device, especially if you have friends and family across the world.

Rather than using up your SMS allowance by sending text messages, WhatsApp lets you send messages over any Wi-Fi or mobile data connection instead. You can also send and receive photos with no size restrictions, and if you're using Wi-Fi (or you have unlimited mobile data) they won't cost you any extra to send.

6. VLC for Android Beta

It might not be quite as glamorous as other media players, but if you want a no-nonsense app that can play pretty much any media file under the sun, then VLC for Android Beta is the app for you.

As the name suggests this app is still in Beta which means there could be the odd bug, but we've yet to encounter anything serious and it's perfectly stable for playing and streaming your media from around your house.

7. Netflix

Netflix has quickly established itself as the best TV and movie streaming service currently available, with a broad library, originally programming and some pretty neat features that makes watching videos an easy and pleasurable experience.

The Netflix Android app encapsulates all of these great features is an easy to use interface. You'll need a Netflix subscription, but if you're a movie buff or love watching TV shows, then this is a must.

8. Spotify

Similar to Netflix, Spotify has been pretty quick to establish itself as the top music streaming service, and the Spotify Music app brings some great features to your Android device, turning it in to a pocket jukebox that delivers your favourite tunes no matter where you are.

Even better you can now listen to Spotify music for free on Android, although if you want to download songs for offline listening and without any ads, then a Spotify Premium account is worth investing in.

9. TuneIn Radio

TuneIn Radio turns your Android device into a global radio, allowing you to stream over 100,000 radio stations from around the world. No matter what type of music you're in to, it's almost guaranteed that there's a radio station somewhere in the world that's dedicated to that genre.

Forget messing about with knobs, TuneIn Radio's interface is clear and easy to use on a touchscreen, and you can tune in with just a tap.

10. Amazon Music

Amazon Music is a clever little app; tracks that are bought from the retail giant are automatically stored within the company's "cloud" servers, from where you can instantly stream them back to your Android device.

You can buy MP3 tracks direct from Amazon's website, but if you bought any CDs that have the AutoRip feature, Amazon will automatically include MP3s of the albums in your collection. For building, managing and streaming a legit Amazon music catalogue the Amazon Music app is a great, stylish option.

11. Evernote

Evernote is an excellent app for your Android device that lets you stash and sync all your text notes, voice memos and files on your phone and access them through a desktop computer.

It's a brilliant productivity tool that lets you organise and search your notes so you always have exactly what you need at your fingertips.

12. Dropbox

Dropbox is probably the best known tool for syncing and sharing your files, photos and videos across all your devices, and its popularity is well earned. Any files that you save to your Dropbox folder on any of your PCs or devices will appear in the Dropbox app.

It took a while for Dropbox to come to Android, and after a shaky start this app is now essential with a number of helpful new features that let you save photos and videos from your device straight to Dropbox, as well as quickly editing your documents from within the app.

13. Todoist - To-Do List

If you want to give your productivity a real boost, you'll want to make the perfect to-do list that helps you keep organised and Todoist: To-Do List is the best app on Android for this purpose.

Not only can you schedule your days in advance to make the most of your time, you can share products, add documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and sync all your tasks across your devices no matter what platform they're running.

14. Google Keep

Google Keep is the Android maker's own attempt at muscling in on the clipboard and to-do list app, presenting a versatile corkboard tool that lets users record audio notes, capture photos, create checklists and more.

The star of the show is the resizeable Home screen widget, from which you can access all the features and hit buttons to record clips and take images. Google's so proud of Keep that it's become canon - and has come pre-loaded as part of Android's app set since Android 4.3.

15. Google Hangouts

If you need to talk to member of your team remotely, Google Hangouts is an excellent messaging app that will help you keep in contact through video calls, text messages, photos, GIFs and much more.

Free group calls are great for virtual meetings, and you can connect your Google Voice account for phone number, SMS and voicemail integration. Of course it's not just a great productivity tool, it's also perfect for keeping in contact with friends and family as well.

16. Unclouded

There are so many excellent online storage services out there like Dropbox, Google Drive and BOX, that it can sometimes mean your important files are spread over a number of different websites and services.

Unclouded is an excellent app that gives you an overview of all your cloud storage accounts. You can quickly find out where certain files are kept, see how much storage your files are taking up and locate duplicate files. Managing your cloud storage has never been easier.

17. Pushbullet

Boost your productivity with Pushbullet, which lets you view your Android phone's notifications and messages directly on your desktop PC. It means if you get a text message you can read it there and then without having to take your phone out of your pocket or bag.

You can also quickly send files from your computer to your phone with only a few clicks, and if you regularly find that you email links to yourself just to open them on your smartphone, then you'll never have to do that again thanks to Pushbullet's link sharing features.

18. IFTTT

IFTTT stands for "if this then that", which handily sums up what this app does. It's a simple ethos that gives you a huge amount of options for making your Android device even smarter.

You can create simple statements such as "if any photo is taken then add them to Dropbox", or "if my location is home, send a text message to my partner saying "I'm home!"" which can also be shared with other IFTTT users. You'll be amazed how much you can do with such a simple premise.

19. Nova Launcher

One of the best things about Android is how customisable it is, and there are loads of apps out there that can help you change the way Android displays and launches apps to suit your preferences.

Out of these Nova Launcher is the best, giving you complete control over your home screen. You can change the icons, themes, colours, layouts and much more.

20. Skype

There's a good chance that you've heard of Skype, the excellent voice and video service (with instant messaging thrown in for good measure as well). The Android app integrates brilliantly with your device, making it easy to make and receive calls.

Calls to other Skype users over Wi-Fi are free, but you can also make calls to mobiles and landlines as well. You'll need Skype credit for this, but you could find yourself saving a small fortune, especially if you're ringing people in other countries.

21. Google Camera

Many manufacturers of Android devices like to use their own camera apps, and although some of these are better than others, they often lack the simplicity of the default Google Camera. If your device manufacturer has seen fit to replace the app with its own bloated offering, then Google Camera is well worth downloading from the Google Play store.

Just because it has a simple interface doesn't mean it lacks features, with len blur, panoramas, HDR+ and much more all waiting to help you take amazing photographs. It also integrates with Android Wear, so if you have a smartwatch you can control the camera using that as well.

22. Snapseed

Snapseed is Google's own photo editor that's been designed from the ground up to make tweaking your snaps as easy and fun as possible on a touchscreen Android device.

Although the interface is simple enough to use with just your fingers, there's also a lot of depth to this app as well. You use tools to tweak and enhance your photographs to make them look the best they ever have, as well as playing around with fun filters that can transform the photos you've taken on your smartphone or tablet.

23. Instagram

Instagram is the go-to app for quickly taking photos, adding quirky filters to them and sharing them with the world. Over 300 million people use Instagram and thanks to the social aspects and effortless interface it's easy to see why it's such a hit.

You're not limited to sharing your snaps on Instagram either, as you can easily add your photos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more with just a few taps.

24. Tumblr

Tumblr, the next-gen blogging format, is present and correct on Android with its custom app coming with support for the multiple blogs of prolific internet kings, built-in messaging, the usual range of text, image and video sharing, plus there's a really nice landscape layout when using it on a tablet.

All you need is an idea. Photos of biscuits on cats? Fish fingers on a gerbil? Depressing lines of dialogue from your favourite soap?

25. GIF Camera

If you've been on the internet for the past 25 years you've probably noticed the odd GIF of two. These short looping video clips are something of a phenomenon, and thanks to GIF Camera it's incredibly easy to make your own with your Android device.

You can create GIFs using photos or videos you taken on your device, then easily share them across social media websites. You'll be King or Queen of the internet in no time at all!

26. Calorie Counter - MyFitnessPal

Watching what you eat in a bid to lose weight can be tricky, which is why the Calorie Counter – MyFitnessPal app for Android is such an essential download. It can help you track what you're eating as well as setting goals to help you shed those pounds.

Logging the food you eat is nice and easy, either search from MyFitnessPal's huge database or scan in barcodes and as well as the calories you consume you'll also get nutritional information about every meal. Eating healthily has never been easier.

27. Google Fit

Google Fit is an excellent app for keeping track of your activity and you don't need any additional fitness trackers; you can just carry your Android phone around with you. If you do have Android Wear-compatible fitness trackers and wearables, then Google Fit gets even better.

Fitness goals can also be set to help you reach the level of fitness you desire, as well as keeping you motivated.

28. Endomondo Running Cycling Walk

Endomondo Running Cycling Walk bills itself as the only personal trainer you'll ever need, and it's pretty darn accurate claim. No matter what sports or fitness activity you perform, this app will track your progress and give you information on speed, distance, calories burnt and more.

You can keep a training diary to view your progress and set workout goals and challenges to help keep you motivated.

29. Johnson and Johnson 7 Minute Workout

The official app of the scientifically proven body-weight workout is designed for all fitness levels and contains over 30 minutes of special videos to help you get fit with a seven minute routine that only needs a wall, chair and a bit of floor space.

30. Map My Fitness Workout Trainer

Map My Fitness Workout Trainer is another great app for keeping tabs on your workout regime. As the name suggests it uses the GPS positioning features of your Android smartphone to log your runs, letting you get an accurate look at your workout regime.

Voice feedback will keep you in the loop even when you're in the process of working out, giving you information on your pace, the route you're taking calories burns and plenty more.

31. Duolingo: Learn Languages Free

If you fancy learning a foreign language then make sure you download Duolingo: Learn Languages Free, as it's one of those rare apps that manages to be both educational and fun, ensuring that you'll keep coming back for more to brush up on your langueage skills.

Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, and English can all be learned, it's completely free with no ads or hidden fees and it's one of the best ways you can learn a new language with your Android device.

32. Wikipedia

The official Wikipedia Android app is very nice to use, presenting a simplified version of the desktop site's content, plus an ever-useful offline saving option if you need access to pages when out of reception range. You also get location aware features, making it easy to randomly browse for interesting things in your vicinity.

33. Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office? On Android? Don't worry, you have read that right; Microsoft's suite of office applications is now available on Android devices and not only is it free, it's also really rather good.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint are all included, so you can open and edit your documents no matter where you are.

34. Google Drive

If having Microsoft on your Android device feels a little weird, then worry not, as Google Drive has you covered as well. You can view all the files you save to the Google Drive cloud storage service, as well as share them with friends and co-workers.

PDFs, photos, videos and much more can be accessed through this handy app.

35. Google Translate

If you need to quickly and easily find out what something means in another language, then there's no better way than with Google Translate. You can translate between 90 languages and even converse naturally with speakers of other languages and let Google do the translation.

One of the best features lets you use the camera of your Android device to translate real-world objects such as signposts and posters. Just point, shoot and translate!

36. Dolphin Browser for Android

Don't just settle for Chrome or whatever web browser your Android device's manufacturer has installed, Dolphin Browser for Android is an excellent alternative that brings innovative new ways to read your favourite websites.

Not only is it fast and smooth when delivering websites, it combines voice and gesture controls to make browsing even more comfortable on your mobile device. A customisable home screen also helps you get to your favourite sites in a flash.

37. Firefox

Firefox Browser for Android is another worthy alternative web browser for your Android device, and if you've used Firefox on your desktop or laptop PC, then you'll have a good idea of what to expect. You'll also be able to synchronise your tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords between your PC and any device you use Firefox on.

The browser is fast and secure, as well as being designed to work well with touchscreen devices and you can also install add-ons such as LastPass Password Manager, Adblock Plus and more to improve your browsing experience.

38. Pocket

Even in 2015 there are still times and places where we can't get an internet connection, but this doesn't have to mean you can't read websites, however, thanks to the excellent Pocket app. It allows you to save articles, news stories, blog posts, videos and much more, letting you read and watch them offline.

installed you can also synchronise your saved articles across them all, allowing you to pick up where you left off and continue reading.

39. Feedly

If you've got a huge list of websites and news sources that you like to keep up to date with, then you'll need to get Feedly. This excellent RSS feed reader collects all the latest news from your favourite sources and brings them together in an elegant interface that makes it easy to find what you're looking for.

40. uTorrent

If you regularly download entirely legitimate and wholly legal work and learning torrents, then uTorrent is for you. It can open the magnet links provided by some of the internet's largest torrent sites, then away you go, queuing and managing torrents and download/upload speeds just like you might on the desktop client.

41. Kindle

Amazon's Kindle app is a great e-reader, which is seamlessly linked with your Amazon account. Support for magazines and newspapers is limited at the moment, with only a handful of niche publications in Android-friendly format.

But for books it's great, with plenty of screen and text display options to get it looking a way that hurts your eyes the least. Another exciting new way to collect classic novels you'll probably never get around to reading because there's the internet now.

42. eBay

Another app that's been out there for a while on Android, the eBay tool has also been updated so much that it's now a credible alternative to the desktop site.

You can list items that you want to sell direct from the app, while there's a simple PIN system that makes paying for your winnings via PayPal much simpler and less convoluted than it is on the full blown web site.

43. Tinder

Tinder is the dating app that's taking the world by storm, and it's easy to see why as it lets you view and connect with people nearby, and its simple interface could net you a match made in heaven.

All you need to do is swipe through the photos of people who are using the app nearby and if you like the look of someone swipe right and if not swipe left. If someone likes you back, you'll be put in contact with them through the app. It's also compatible with Android Wear devices.

44. SketchBook Express

If you're a budding digital artist on the go then make sure you download Sketchbook Express, an amazingly powerful and versatile app that can turn your Android phone or tablet into a digital canvas.

This free version of the renowned Sketchbook Pro software features plenty of the tools that come with the paid application, including 15 preset brushes and multi-touch navigation.

45. Uber

Uber is transforming the way we travel. You can quickly and easily request a taxi using the app and get picked up within minutes and you can compare rates and get quotes, as well as paying with Google Wallet, PayPal or by adding your credit card to a secure Uber account.

The Uber service is available in over 50 countries, and it's rapidly growing. Give it a try and you'll never want to hail a taxi the old fashioned way again.

46. AccuWeather

Plenty of devices come with weather apps preinstalled, but very few are as accurate or as useful as AccuWeather. With AccuWeather MinuteCast you can get minute-by-minute forecasts for you exact GPS location, so you'll never be caught off guard by a sudden storm or heatwave again.

The app will also warn you of any severe or dangerous weather conditions, as well as being a bright and attractive app for keeping up with what the weather is doing in your area.

47. Twickets

Ever wanted to go to a gig but it's sold out? Rather than turning up at the event and trying to buy tickets at hugely inflated prices from unscrupulous scalpers, use the Twickets app instead.

This puts fans who have missed out in touch with other fans who can't make it to the event. Sports, comedy, musicals, cinemas, live music and much more are all covered, and the only rule is that no one can post tickets above face value, so you'll never be ripped off.

48. Amazon Appstore

There's a particularly great reason to have the Amazon Appstore on your phone or tablet - free stuff. Amazon is enticing users to stick its alternate Android app store on their devices with the promise of a free app every day, with some classics like Sega's ChucChu Rocket and World of Goo featuring as previous daily freebies.

The catch is these are unsupported releases, meaning no updates or fixes in the future, but you can't moan too much about getting some ace freebies every day.

49. Skyscanner - All Flights!

Compare millions of flights from airlines around the world with the Skyscanner app and grab yourself a real bargain.

In only a few seconds you'll be able search and compare flights to find the cheapest ones available, and you can book your chosen flight directly from the app while you're on the go. You can also search for random destinations to give you inspiration for your next holiday.

50. theScore - Sports & Scores

If you're a sports fantatic and need to keep up with the results no matter what sport or team you support, then theScore is an essential app that you'll want to make sure is installed on your Android device.

Covering all the major sports including football (both real and American), basketball, hockey, golf and much more, you'll get the latest news and alerts to keep you up to date with any game. Player Card Profiles is a particularly great feature that gives you in-depth stats and analysis of players.

That's just the beginning, though - both the Pebble Time and the Pebble Time Steel feature a "special port" for different strap accessories to plug into, and the straps can be easily swapped in and out for various needs.

"In order to add a heart rate monitor or GPS directly into a smartwatch, you have to make serious compromises on design and battery life. And it's likely that if you buy a watch with a certain sensor today, it will be out of date within 12 months," said Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky. "We are creating an open platform that will enable anyone to build smartstraps for Pebble watches."

Pebble will make some smartstraps of its own, while it's also "working closely" with third party accessory makers on others.

They'll begin to arrive "later in the year," the company said in an announcement.

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If you wanted to take some of the wind out of the Apple Watch launch, what would you do? Why, make your own smartwatch platform compatible with iPhones, that's what.

French tech website 01net reckons that's exactly what Google is plotting. The site isn't well-known outside of France, but it has hit the mark with a couple of rumours in the past. Insiders seem to think an announcement could be made at Google I/O in May.

It's not the first time the possibility has been aired, either. Last year, Android Wear Product Manager Jeff Chang dropped a few hints that he'd like to see the software made available to as many people as possible - and that includes those running iOS on their smartphones.

Over to you, Apple

As Chang pointed out at the time though, it's not just down to Google: Apple would have to approve the app and has full control over the APIs and other protocols that paired devices can access. Would Tim Cook be willing to let Android Wear work with iOS?

The new Microsoft Band works with iOS, as does the Pebble range, so it's not completely out of the question that Android Wear could join them. Google already has plenty of iOS apps in its collection as well.

For now, it's nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumour, but it's an interesting prospect in the run up to the Apple Watch launch. We can be certain that Apple's timepiece will never support Android, but there seems more than a chance that the opposite could happen.

Xperia Z4: release date, design and display

It might not seem that long ago since the Xperia Z3 was released, but with Sony's rapid release schedule for its flagship smartphones the rumour mill has already been working overtime.

We've started to hear plenty rumours about Sony's next flagship, including one report which reckons the Japanese firm will return to an annual launch of its top device, ditching the recent trend of every six months, though not until after the Z4 launches.

Updates: We may not have quite as long to wait for the Sony Xperia Z4 as we'd thought, but it still probably won't launch before June.

Cut to the chase

What is it? Sony's next flagship smartphone

When is it out? Sometime in the summer probably

What will it cost? A lot - this will be a high-end device

Sony Xperia Z4 release date

Early rumors suggested we'd see the Sony Xperia Z4 at MWC 2015, but that hasn't happened. So when will we see it? That's not entirely clear.

Some rumors suggest that Sony is moving from two flagships a year to just one and pushing the Sony Xperia Z4 back to the summer.

On the other hand Sony has already started rolling out its '4' product range with the Xperia Z4 Tablet and the Xperia M4 Aqua, so it would make sense to have a smartphone alongside them. Plus, speaking to TrustedReviews, Tim Harrison, Sony's Vice President of Global Communications and PR, claimed the company hasn't moved to a 12 month product cycle.

So maybe we won't have to wait too long after all. The Xperia Z4 Tablet isn't set to launch till June anyway, so that still gives Sony a few months to announce its next flagship and get it on the market at the same time.

What will it cost?

There's been no information on how much the Xperia Z4 will cost, however as it's a flagship smartphone (and a Sony one at that) we'd expect it to ship with a high price tag.

The Xperia Z3 launched at £549 ($630, AU$849) and we'd expect the Z4 to launch at around the same price.

These rumours claim that the 1080p version will cost less than the QHD version, though we'd take those claims with a pinch of salt.

Sony Xperia Z4 design

The Xperia Z3's attractive OmniBalance design was one of its strongest features, and it looks like Sony won't be straying too far from that template.

According to a source that contacted Phone Arena, the Xperia Z4 will have thinner top and bottom bezels as well as more rounded corners as you can sort of see in the accompanying image.

You may not have to imagine what the Z4 may look like any more, after images apparently taken from the email account of the Sony CEO during the major Sony hack reveals early renders of the Xperia Z4.

What can you expect then? Well a mirrored front and rear, the now-traditional oversized power/lock key on the right and three colour options - white, black and yellow. That's if the images are correct, of course.

Annotated images that were included in the leak show that the Xperia Z4 could come with a 1.2mm glass panel and resin bezel.

Another recent rumour suggested that Sony could be releasing a Walkman edition of the Xperia Z4. This version would concentrate on music playing with hi-res audio codec support, two-day battery life and improved S-Force PRO front-facing speakers.

Releasing multiple versions of its upcoming flagship smartphone could be a risky move on Sony's part, but more choice might not be a bad thing for the consumer looking to buy a phone that focuses on their specific interest.

Sony Xperia Z4 screen

There's been a lot of conflicting reports on the Xperia Z4's screen. One area of contention is how large the screen will be.

Early rumours hinted that the screen would be 5.5-inches, a fair bit larger than the 5.2-inch display on the Xperia Z3.

Another rumour suggested that the screen will be slightly smaller at 5.4-inches, though still an upgrade over the Z3.

The latest rumours we've heard about the size of the Xperia Z4's screen claims that neither of those sizes is correct, and instead Sony will be sticking with a 5.2-inch display.

The other detail rumours seem to be conflicted on is regarding the resolution of the screen. Although some rumours claim that Sony is sticking with 1080p as the resolution, other rumours are suggesting it will get a substantial boost to QHD 1440 x 2560, the same as the LG G3.

Power, OS and Camera

Sony Xperia Z4 power

We could be in for something quite special with the Xperia Z4, as a benchmark result pegs it as having a Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM.

Earlier claims include specs which largely line up with this. A 64-bit 2.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, Adreno 430 GPU, 32GB of storage and a Exmor RS CMOS sensor have all been touted for the handset.

It will supposedly support Bluetooth 4.1 and LTE Cat.6 connectivity, leaving it equipped to handle LTE-A speeds.

Either way, both these processors offer an upgrade over the Snapdragon 801, which is found in the Xperia Z3.

The battery is pegged at 3420mAh, which is a slight boost over the 3100mAh Xperia Z3.

Sony Xperia Z4 operating system

We've heard relatively little about what operating system the Xperia Z4 will run, though it's a safe bet that it will be some form of Android with Sony's custom overlay.

As Sony is rolling out the update to the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 5.0 Lollipop, from the beginning of February to the Xperia Z3, it's pretty likely that when the Xperia Z4 launches later in the year it will come with Android 5.0 Lollipop preinstalled.

Sony Xperia Z4 camera

The camera is said to have a 20.7MP resolution, just like the Xperia Z3, but with a new sensor capable of taking in more light along with an upgraded 4.8MP front-facing snapper.

If true, then there is a good chance that the Xperia Z4 will feature the IMX230 sensor. It comes with a 21 megapixel resolution (the same as the Xperia Z3), but with a number of new features as well.

Sony claims it is the industry's first CMOS image sensor built for smartphones that can track fast-moving subjects thanks to built-in image plane phase detection autofocus.

It will also support High Dynamic Range for high resolution still images and 4K video, and it all comes in a form factor that's more compact than its predecessor. Will Sony finally let you record for more than a nanosecond in 4K though? Surely the brand must have ironed out that wrinkle by now.

Other leaks suggest the Z4's camera will feature the IMX189AEG CMOS image sensor. This sensor will be able to record 2K video (2048 x 1080) at 16,000 frames per second, with 4K video (6144 x 2160) recording at 240 frames per second, much faster (and therefore smoother) than the Z3.

Xperia Z4: what we want to see

The Sony Xperia Z3 has only recently arrived on shop shelves but we're pretty sure we're very close to seeing the new handset, so over the last few months we've been making a wishlist of what we want to see.

4K video that actually works

Sony's been trumpeting its phones 4K video capabilities since the Xperia Z2, yet neither that nor the Xperia Z3 can actually record for more than around five minutes without heating up and shutting down the video.

That's obviously a major problem and while it doesn't quite render the 4K feature redundant it does severely limit it. The fact that Sony has left it unfixed in the Xperia Z3 is perplexing, presumably there isn't an easy fix, but if longer videos were possible it could be a genuinely useful feature, whereas right now it's just kind of an embarrassment.

So hopefully it will be fixed for the Sony Xperia Z4. You never know, some people might even have 4K televisions by then too.

A QHD display

The Sony Xperia Z, Z1 and Z2 all had 1080p displays and that was fine as that was the best any smartphone had at the time and the screen size was at least being increased.

But then the Xperia Z3 also launched with a 1080p screen and that was slightly more disappointing, since the size remained the same and other than increased brightness there wasn't much of an upgrade, plus some other phones, such as the LG G3, have started including QHD displays.

We want the Xperia Z4 to wow us and a 1080p display for the fifth time in a row won't do that, so we're hoping its QHD.

Smaller bezels

The Sony Xperia Z3 looks great, but the bezels above and below the screen are off-puttingly large. Presumably there's a reason for their size, they're likely housing vital components required to make the phone actually work, but they're unsightly and we hope they're smaller next time around.

Improved low-light performance

For the most part the Xperia Z3 has a perfectly capable and even impressive camera, but its low-light performance could still use some work.

Sony made some strides with the Xperia Z3, improving it over the Z2, but seemingly more with software than hardware as its low-light photos tend to come out over-processed, leaving it trailing behind the likes of the iPhone 6 and the HTC One M8 in darker scenes.

Clearly Sony is aware of the problem given that it made some improvements on the Xperia Z3, but it didn't go far enough. We want proper hardware improvements, rather than awkward software fixes.

Sony is due to release a flagship mobile image sensor, the Exmor RS IMX230 in April 2015 and it is likely that the Xperia Z4 will come with the new sensor.

More power

With a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB of RAM you might not think the Xperia Z3 was lacking for power, yet in some ways it is. For one thing all that power seemingly hasn't translated into performance, as surprisingly we found a little bit of lag in use, especially when switching between apps.

It's not a big deal but it does feel less snappy than most other recent flagships despite the specs, which on paper should be more than up to the task. So we're more after increased performance than an actual boost in specs, if it takes improved specs to do that then fine, but if the same thing can be achieved with a bit more optimisation that's fine too.

Having said that superior specs wouldn't be a bad thing either way, as the Snapdragon 801 is starting to look a bit long in the tooth with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using a Snapdragon 805 chip and the Snapdragon 810 already hitting the shelves.

Fewer bugs

Another surprising aspect of the Xperia Z3 was just how buggy it seemed, with the keyboard sometimes bouncing or proving unresponsive and the notifications bar occasionally getting stuck half way down.

Hopefully Sony will patch those bugs out of the Xperia Z3 anyway but we'd really rather it makes sure the Xperia Z4 is bug-free before launching it.

Faster camera and autofocus

As long as the light's good the Xperia Z3 can take some exceptional snaps, but one problem with it is actually getting to the point of being able to take a photo, as both launching the camera and the autofocus are a little slower than we'd like.

We're talking milliseconds here, but that can still mean the difference between capturing a moment and missing it, so hopefully the Xperia Z4 will have a snappier snapper.

The new Exmor RS IMX230, which the Xperia Z4 is likely to come with, is claimed by Sony to be the industry's first CMOS image sensor built for smartphones which can track fast-moving subjects thanks to built-in image plane phase detection autofocus.

This new sensor would make the Xperia Z4's camera much better at photographing fast moving subjects.

A new design

We've mentioned that we want smaller bezels but what we'd really like to see is a totally new design. Sony has done a good job of refining its OmniBalance design but there's only so much you can do and with handset after handset sporting fundamentally the same look it's starting to get a bit boring.

Not to mention the fact that for our money both the iPhone 6 and the HTC One M8 look better. So hopefully Sony will do something new and exciting with the Xperia Z4.

Make it metal, give it curves, make it triangular. Ok, maybe not that last one, but we're sure Sony can come up with something, oh and get rid of all those annoying flaps! Most likely it will stick with OmniBalance, but we can dream.

Better Lifelogging

Sony's Lifelogging app is an interesting idea, as it goes beyond just counting steps to also tell you how much running, cycling and sleeping you do and even how long you spend listening to music or watching videos (as long as you do it on your phone).

Essentially as the name suggests it's designed to log your life, but it could do with some improvements. The biggest issue is that it's just not accurate enough, but there are also quirks like the fact that it counts all apps as games, so even if you've never touched a game on your smartphone it will likely peg you as a big mobile gamer.

Plus, while all this information is interesting it doesn't really lead to anything or give you any insights based on the data. If Sony can work on all those things for its Z4 implementation then it could become genuinely useful.

Innovation

Asking for innovation might seem a bit vague, but with smartphones increasingly levelling out when it comes to specs it's innovation that can really help them stand out, so it would be great if the Sony Xperia Z4 had one or more innovative new features.

What those might be is anyone's guess, maybe a scratch proof body, maybe a virtual reality display, probably not a virtual reality display, but something and ideally something that's more than just a gimmick.

Come on Sony, give us a new feature that even Z3 owners will consider upgrading for.

You can use Withings' own Health Mate app on Android to track your steps and distance, or plug the data into Google Fit instead – Withings says the Pop and the original Activité now work with Google's own health platform.

It coincides nicely with the arrival of the Activité Pop in European markets outside the UK, and it means when the Pop finally goes on sale in the US, Android users won't have to wait to pick it up.

One step at a time

If you were holding back on picking up an Activité or an Activité Pop because you didn't have an iPhone, you don't have to wait any longer. Both smartwatches feature the same sleep tracking and step counting capabilities, though the more expensive Activité is made from premium materials and is more easy on the eye.

That said, both timepieces do a decent job of melding fitness tracking with something that you might actually want to wear. There are no smartphone notifications to disturb you, just a secondary dial that shows how close you are to your fitness goals.

"Following on from the overwhelming reception that both the Activité and Activité Pop have received on their elegance and design, we have listened to our dynamic Android community and it seemed natural for us to quickly provide Android compatibility for each product," said Withings CEO Cédric Hutchings.

iPhone 6S / 7 release date and rumors

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been with us long enough now that we're getting a little tired of them. Fickle, we know. But the mooted specs and features of the new iPhone (probably called the iPhone 6S, with the iPhone 7 coming in 2016) are starting to trickle out.

Latest update:The iPhone 6s could inherit an innovative new Apple Watch feature, but some early camera rumors are now looking less likely.

We've also rounded up 10 things we think should appear in the next iteration for Apple to finally have the all-conquering handset it's been trying to create for so many years.

What would you like to see in the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7? Do let us know in the comments. But before we get to what we want to see, here are the best (and most believable) of the rumors on offer so far:

Cut to the chase

What is it? Apple's next flagship

When is it out? Very likely September 2015 but some believe as soon as spring

What will it cost? A lot, at least £539 / $649 / AU$869

News and rumors

The iPhone 6s could get an innovative new feature in the form of 'Force Touch'. This is something we'll first see on the Apple Watch and it allows the display to differentiate between different strength presses, responding in different ways.

According to sources speaking to Apple Insider, the feature will make it across to the iPhone 6s, though the same sources have squashed rumors of a two-lens camera system, claiming it would require a radical redesign of the chassis, which isn't on the cards.

Those rumors were started by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who said the iPhone 6s will have "the biggest camera jump ever", featuring a two-lens system which apparently brings it up to DSLR quality.

We could even speculate what that camera might be, as Sony has just announced a 21MP stacked CMOS sensor which might fit the bill, especially as Sony currently supplies Apple with camera modules.

It's designed to be better able to focus on fast moving objects and includes HDR for 4K video and high-resolution photos, and while Apple might go for a lower-spec sensor (8MP to 21MP is a massive jump) it's interesting to see what features are being made available. But don't hold your breath now the original rumor has had doubt cast on it.

The iPhone 6s will of course come with a new processor, probably dubbed the A9 and we're hearing again that Samsung is in the frame to build the chip which will apparently be 15% smaller, 20% more powerful and 35% more power efficient than the Apple A8 processor found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

It will also be better to flick around, thanks to the mooted upgrade in the specs - 2GB of RAM would certainly soup up an already zippy phone. That said, the obvious worry is whether developers hoovering up that extra power will cause Apple to return to its usual battery woes.

Reports suggest Apple will publicly try out its next operating system through a beta system later this summer. According to reports from 9to5mac Apple will let users sign up to a beta programme for iOS 9 with access coming to those public testers at some point during the summer.

If the rumours are to be believed it'll then launch on the iPhone 7 but will likely only supply bug fixes and won't introduce any major new features.

It's expected support for Apple's new streaming music service will be included in the iOS 8.4 update but that isn't confirmed just yet so Apple may wait until iOS 7 and bring it in as a major new feature. The music streaming service comes after Apple purchased Beats last year and is expected to take on the tough competition of Spotify.

iPhone 7 design

There are in fact numerous Apple patents in the wild which haven't yet come to anything, such as one for a phone with a curved display, a little like the Galaxy Note Edge. It's possible that we could see that in the iPhone 6S, but we'd be very surprised.

Not only would it be a risky move to bring something so untested to market but Apple has just redesigned its handsets with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, so in all likelihood next year's models will stick to roughly the same design, albeit with beefed up innards, such as a faster A9 processor.

While the design probably won't change much, the screen might as new rumors suggest that Apple has teamed with Foxconn to produce sapphire displays for the iPhone 6S.

Such screens were rumored for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but production difficulties seemingly got in the way. Hopefully this time we actually will get them as it would bring better scratch protection and higher visibility to the screen.

There are also rumors that Apple might release another 4-inch phone next year and it may even have curved screen edges in line with the iPhone 6, so while larger sizes are likely to remain an option it seems the Cupertino company might not have abandoned its smaller handsets.

Apple iPhone 6S / iPhone 7 release date

We can take an educated guess that the iPhone 6S will launch in September 2015 as previous models have launched in that same month.

On the other hand, a source speaking to StableyTimes claims that Apple might bring the release of the iPhone 6S forward to coincide with the Apple Watch in the spring. Let's be clear though: that will not happen. Now the Watch is coming in April, there's no way we're going to see another iPhone at the same time.

It wouldn't be the first time Apple's made a quick turnaround with new hardware, as it did similar with the iPad 4, so in the extremely unlikely event it does reboot the iPhone in April it would be a very minor change, like a boost in capacity at the bottom end from 16GB to 32GB.

Samsung is reportedly already producing the A9 processor that is expected to be included in the iPhone 6S, so it's possible that it could arrive before September. Either way we've still got a while to wait, so in the meantime, here's what we want to see:

1. A smaller screen

We know, we know. Everybody's been going "Apple should totally make bigger phones", and now we're effectively saying "O noes! Apple your phones are too big!" But bear with us on this one.

For many people the iPhone 5S is the perfect size, big enough for apps but not so big you need a friend to help you carry it. If you tend to use your phone as a phone, bigger screens can be counterproductive, especially if you have small hands or just don't like holding something enormous to the side of your head.

We think an iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 with the same screen size as the 5S would be a winner, not instead of the larger models, but alongside them.

2. Wireless charging

Wireless charging remains one of the most frustrating technologies around, because while it's here, it works and it feels like living in the future, it isn't as widely supported as we'd like.

It's rather like Google Wallet's NFC payments in that respect: the idea's sound but maybe it needs a fruit-themed firm from Cupertino to get on board before it'll really take off. An iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 with wireless charging would be great, especially if the same charger worked for next year's Apple Watch too.

3. Lightning cables that don't die

Some members of the Ephemeroptera family, such as mayflies, have a lifespan of just one day. That means they last approximately eleventy billion times longer than Lightning cables.

We know that spontaneously self-harming cables should be covered by the warranty, but if the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 Lightning cables could be toughened up to save us those trips to the Genius Bar we'd be delighted. If Apple won't give us wireless charging, it could at least eliminate the weakness in its chargers.

4. No more 16GB models

iOS 8 adoption has stalled, and we reckon it's largely because people with 16GB iPhones don't have enough free space for the 5.7GB over-the-air update and don't want to use iTunes because, well, iTunes.

When your software updates are too big for your entry level products, your entry level products clearly don't come with enough storage. How about starting at 32GB for the iPhone 6S and 64GB for the iPhone 7? We can't store everything in iCloud, even when it's working properly.

5. The same camera as the iPhone 6 Plus

The necessary bits and pieces add a whopping 0.2mm to the thickness of the device, and we can promise Apple that the number of people who wouldn't buy an iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 because it was 7.1mm instead of 6.9mm is as insignificant as that 0.2mm difference.

More of what we want from the next iPhones

6. More RAM

The current iPhones are perfectly nippy, but Safari's need to reload web pages when you've only a few tabs open is a big clue that iOS would really like some more RAM to play with. The more stuff your phone does, such as tracking your health or communicating with your Apple watch, the more RAM it can use.

64-bit apps need more RAM than 32-bit apps anyway, and if it's true that the next iPad has 2GB on board then you can be certain that iOS 9 or 10 will run like a dog in iPhones with just 1GB on board.

7. An alternative to super SuperSlipOMinium

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are made from a metal that appears to be SuperSlipOMinium, a substance so slippery that human hands simply can't grip it. That's great news for the screen replacement and third party protective case industries, but it'd be nice if holding our phones was easier than gripping a wet eel.

8. A higher resolution screen

The screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus deliver 326ppi and 401ppi respectively. That's pretty good, but the higher density of rival devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S5's 432ppi and the Nexus 6's reported 498ppi is better still. If you like big phones and tend to hold them close, you'd want that kind of pixel density in your iPhone 6S or iPhone 7.

9. Better battery life

You could make this point in the wish list for any smartphone, of course, but while the iPhone 6 Plus is comfortably ahead of its rivals in the stamina stakes the iPhone 6 isn't. That's because the Plus has more room for a significantly bigger battery, but once again we'd be willing to trade slimness for power: a 4.7-inch iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 that was slightly thicker but lasted longer would be an easy sell.

The big problem with battery life, of course, is that all the other stuff on your wish list tends to affect it. Higher pixel densities can negatively effect battery life, as can using more RAM. Such changes don't necessarily have a huge impact individually, but smartphones are very tricky balancing acts: you can have extraordinary performance, incredible displays and astonishing battery life, but you can't have all three at the same time just yet.

10. Flexible displays

Never mind fighting against accusations of bendy phones. Apple should embrace them and make the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 the bendiest smartphone the world has ever seen. We're talking flexible screens printed on plastic instead of glass, iPhones that you can bend and twist and sit on to your heart's content without any unpleasant consequences. If nothing else Apple should do it purely to annoy Samsung, who have been promising bendable smartphones for years.

iPhone 7 concepts

We're a long way from the launch of the new iPhone, people. If you can't wait to find out what it's going to look like, well, the internet never disappoints.

OK - it does if you're looking for actual accurate visuals on the next iPhone, but the concept artists have already been grinding their digital looms into action to start showing us how they think the next version should look:

Bring back the Nano!

With the touch sensitive panels on the side, the phone will enable a lot power display to show message or app notifications without needing to waste batter firing up the battery-guzzling screen.

Plus the side controls allow for all new gaming abilities for your digits - that's an idea we can get on board with.

Sharpen up

Apparently Apple's subtle curves got it all wrong. What we need is to drop the home button (but keep the space as an homage to the logo) and then make it grippably industrial again.

The always-popular edge to edge display is out in force once more, and Jan-Willem Reusink's idea is still all about the metal. But what about the radio signal eh? That's one for Apple to work out, apparently.

,

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/10-things-we-d-like-to-see-in-the-iphone-6s-and-iphone-7-1269122?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/1269122Gareth Beavis2015-03-03T16:22:00ZMobile phones, Phone and communicationsDiscover the crazy, creative world of mobileography at The Photography Showhttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/events/The%20Photography%20Show/The-Photography-Show-website-470-75.jpg

It's not an either-or debate. You can take great pictures with a DSLR and you can take great pictures with a smartphone, and an increasing number of people are doing both. Our mission is to bridge that cultural gap and show the true potential of mobile photography – or 'mobileography'.

We've got a full program of talks running from 11:00am to 4:30pm. Each one lasts half an hour and it's all perfectly informal. There's no need to book – just stop by the stand, have a listen and ask any questions you want to ask.

TechRadar's Global Editor-in-Chief Patrick Goss will be revealing what's coming next in the world of mobile photography – but why your D-SLR will always be number one.

Mobile Photographer Jess MacDonald (@Miss_Jess) will show how to get the most out of your mobile phone and take pictures you can be proud of.

Oliver Lang (@oggsie), Mobile Photography Consultant & Curator, will show how to enjoy and change your approach to mobile photography.

Ali Jennings will explain how action cams work, what they can do, and how they are changing the way we record our adventures!

Photographer James Madelin will give you five fast and easy tips for improving your smartphone photos to make them pop.

And Joanne Carter, Founder of TheAppWhisperer, will explore mobile photography communities, different types of mobile photography and those essential mobile photography accessories.

Many businesses, especially the smallest ones, often believe that buying consumer-grade products can save them money but unfortunately, more often than not, that ends in a false economy spiral.

Products that have been designed for a domestic use often come with disclaimers that explicitly say that they should not be used in a professional or business environment.

That's because they are less powerful, not built to withstand frequent usage or travelling and may end up with a much higher TCO (total cost of ownership). Perhaps most importantly, they are not covered by a standard warranty if things go wrong.

That's where PC World Business comes in; to cater for businesses and discerning professionals that understand that not all appliances or devices are created equal and are more interested in the bigger picture as well as finer details like running costs and after sales.

So you won't end up being lured by a cheap printer only to find yourself stung by the high cost of consumables or buy one that's too slow or lacks business features you might need for your tasks.

PC World Business will help any SMB maximise its productivity and unlock its IT potential. Want to buy a new laptop? Then its business advisers will help you not only choose the right model but inform you of other complementary products like docking stations, storage cart and chargers and even desks and cabling.

They will make sure that the final solution is fine-tuned for the end user. That could mean opting for Windows 7 rather than Windows 8 and a desktop machine rather than a straight forward laptop. PC World Business believes that it is essential to understand the different needs and requirements of business customers.

Software licensing is another area where PC World Business' expertise can help untangle complex issues. Solutions like volume licenses means that costly software packages can be easily managed and your initial investment protected.

They might even suggest that you opt for a cloud-based solution to alleviate issues associated with software asset management across fluctuating number of seats/employees.

The online business retailer offers access to more than 60,000 products online. From laptops to cameras and even kettles, all these products are price checked on a daily basis to make sure that they are and stay competitive.

Not only are their products specially selected for specific audiences (e.g. landlords, schools and more), they also offer a wide range of services to support them.

These tailored end-to-end solutions are ideal to help businesses grow; add expert help and advice to the mix and you get a comprehensive one stop shop that can cater for any outfit, whatever the business needs.

What's more PC World Business is backed by an impressive network of brick-and-mortar stores across the country (over 300 of them) that have dedicated business advisers plus a UK-based call centre support backend.

Oh, and if you do want to get your hands on business products as soon as possible, there are a range of flexible delivery and installation options. Likewise, if you want to place a large order or are thinking about business leasing, then PC World Business fits the bill.

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/management/the-spring-business-event-1286089?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/1286089TechRadar2015-03-03T15:20:00ZManagement, World of tech, RoundupBlu-ray exploit makes PowerDVD even more bloatedhttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/blu-ray-disks-470-75.jpg

Blu-ray disks are harbouring two dangerous exploits that would allow an attacker to potentially launch executables remotely using a disk drive.

First reported by The Register, hacker Stephen Tomkinson found two separate vulnerabilities in Blu-ray disks involve the infamous piece of bloatware CyberLink PowerDVD and a rooting process that utilises an external USB.

The first one takes advantage of a dodgy Java code implementation in PowerDVD. The PC program uses Java to play DVDs and create menus, and the unique way in which the code is used allows it to be exploited. The end result are executable files that can be easily put onto Blu-ray disks and then run automatically from the disk drive even though Windows usually prevents this from happening.

Never use untrusted Blu-rays

The second exploit uses elements of hacker Malcolm Stagg's Blu-ray rooting process, which take advantage of debug code to launch from an external USB. Using this process, a Java Xlet to replay a TCP stream to the "net inf" daemon and this enables the Blu-ray disk exploit to take place.

Attackers must know the DVD player model in order to carry out an attack on their chosen target and Tomkinson is advising users not to play Blu-rays from untrusted origins. Users should also prevent disks from auto-playing or accessing the internet at any time.

Criminals in the US are targeting Apple Pay to carry out fraudulent transactions for high-value goods, a report in the Guardian says. The problem lies not in Apple Pay itself but in the way banks verify owners of a new iDevice.

Users have to confirm their identity before connecting a credit or debit card to Apple Pay, and apparently the identity checks have not been stringent enough - so robbers are setting up new iPhones with stolen cards and then going on a shopping spree.

Industry sources say the cost of the deception already runs into the millions of dollars. "Banks have been caught by surprise by the level of fraud," writes the Guardian, which goes on to say they're "scrambling" to prevent the problem running out of control.

Identify yourself

It needs to be notes that the charlatans haven't broken into the Apple Pay system or managed to fake fingerprints on Touch ID - but they are finding it all too simple to connect a stolen credit or debit card with the Apple payments platform.

It therefore seems to be down to the US banks to add extra layers of authentication to make sure you are who you say you are when you set up a new payment method.

Apple Pay launched in the US in October. The system is scheduled to roll out in the UK at some point during 2015, but according to the experts the Guardian spoke to, the process of adding cards will be much more secure over here than it is in the US. "Banks are always reviewing and improving their approval process, which varies by bank," commented an Apple spokesman.

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-pay-becomes-a-target-for-fraudsters-1286953?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/1286953David Nield2015-03-03T14:28:00ZMobile phones, Phone and communicationsUpdated: 90 best free iPhone games on the planethttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/features/iphone%20free%20games%202013/iphone-game-470-75.jpg

Best free iPhone games

It's safe to say that Apple's given the gaming industry a square kick in the tender regions.

Despite their bluster, dismissing Apple in every way possible, Sony and Nintendo are both clearly concerned by the meteoric rise of iPod touch and iPhone as handheld gaming devices.

Although great games are the driving force behind the success of Apple gaming, low prices have also helped. Most 'premium' titles cost six quid or less, and many developers end up in a race to 69p, thereby providing games that'd cost 20 quid on a rival platform for the price of a Kit-Kat.

But what if you've spent the last of your cash on your shiny Apple object of desire? Can you get great games for nothing at all, or is the 'free' section of the App Store best ignored?

The answer is, of course, both, and the trick is finding the gems amongst the dross. What follows is our pick of the bunch - our top 70 free iPod touch and iPhone games.

1. Timberman

Not so much an endless runner as an endless chopper, Timberman has your square-jawed (and, in fact, just plain square) lumberjack hacking away at a giant tree. You tap to move left or right, dodging deadly branches, and must chop at speed, lest your power meter run dry. Those in it for the long haul will find 30 Timbermen to unlock, including a certain large, angry, green superhero.

2. Tiny Striker

We've seen quite a few spot-kick flick-based efforts on the iPhone, but Tiny Striker also brings to mind old-school arcade footie like SWOS. It's all goalmouth action here, though, with you scoring from set-pieces, initially against an open goal, but eventually by deftly curling your ball past walls of defenders and a roaming 'keeper.

3. Run Sackboy! Run!

The wee knitted chap from LittleBigPlanet lands on iOS, in yet another endless runner. We should yawn and hit delete, really, but Run SackBoy! Run! is absolutely gorgeous, with stunning scenery based on the LittleBigPlanet titles. The gameplay's intuitive and simple, but inventive level design will keep you coming back time and time again.

4. Flappy Golf

Originally intended as a joke, Flappy Golf smashes Flappy Bird into Super Stickman Golf 2. But on playing the game, it's anything but throwaway. You get the crazy courses of Noodlecake's 'proper' golf game, but the wildly different controls (flap your winged ball left or right) force you to find new ways to tackle them. And the demented multiplayer race mode is an excellent bonus.

5. Mr Crab

Another iOS platform game that relies on your ability to use a single dextrous digit, Mr. Crab finds the eponymous hero rescuing his kind from levels wrapped around towering tubes. It's all about timing, using scenery to double back and grab whatever you've missed, and, at certain points, figuring out how to defeat terrifying bosses. It looks fantastic, and there's surprising depth behind this game's stripped-back control system.

6. Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed

The first iOS Sonic kart game worked nicely on the platform (a rare thing for the genre), and this sequel doesn't disappoint. You get plenty of dynamic, colourful tracks to speed around, grabbing power-ups and boosts along the way. Periodically, your kart will transform to become a boat or plane, adding further dimensions to the racing action. It's a bit grindy now and again, but you won't care when you're drifting like a loon across an aircraft carrier, before plunging into the sea.

7. Sausage!! Sausage!! Sausage!!

Sausage!! Sausage!! Sausage!! is another of Poppy's excellent one-thumb arcade experiences for iOS. A sausage falls at random intervals from the top of the screen, and you must catch it in your bun. It's absurd, bright, cheerful and oddly addictive.

8. Winter Walk

This sweet survival game is full of character, as you assist a Victorian gent, out for his evening constitutional. The problem is it's a bit windy, and the gent's hat is in danger of blowing away during a gust - press the screen and he holds it in place. Each step increases your score and also the chances of seeing thoughtful comments from the hatted chap.

9. BaconBaconBacon

BaconBaconBacon feels a bit like Bejeweled slipped through a time-warp and collided with oddball British gaming humour from the early 1980s. Instead of gems, you swap pigs, and must smite vegans guarding them for extra points. Bonus pigs can be matched for extra sausages, or to fill a ketchup bomb.

10. Retry

In this insanely tough arcade test, you coax a finicky biplane through side-on levels of floating islands. The slightest touch on anything but a collectable coin or runway spells doom, and ghosts of previous crashes helpfully litter the way as you retry. IAP is available to buy coins for restart points, which in this case are tacit admission of your lack of gaming prowess.

11. Boulder Dash 30th Anniversary

The Boulder Dash series has a long pedigree, but this is the first time its co-creators have teamed up since the classic 1984 original. It's also the first time (in several attempts) the game has worked on iOS. The game itself is business as usual: dig through dirt; avoid boulders and enemies; grab gems. But it looks great, controls well, and even includes the original caves as an optional IAP.

12. Zombie Highway 2

The zombies in this title are surprisingly sprightly, leaping towards any oncoming vehicle and aiming to shake it until it flips, presumably whereupon they prise open the door and eat the occupant's BRRAIIINNZZ. You must fend them off, by scraping your vehicle against wrecks littering the highway, or blow them away with your gun.

13. Sky Force 2014

Sky Force 2014 celebrates the mobile series's 10th anniversary in style, with this stunning top-down arcade blaster. Your little red ship, as ever, is tasked with weaving its way through hostile enemy territory, annihilating everything in sight. The visuals are spectacular, the level design is smart, and the bosses are huge, spewing bullet-hell in your general direction.

14. Crazy Taxi City Rush

We imagine this Crazy Taxi rethink will alienate some fans of the original series, but plenty of the classic time-attack racer's feel remains intact. You zoom through city streets, picking up and dropping off fares against the clock; only this time, everything's largely on rails. It's sort of Crazy Taxi meets Temple Run, with plenty of upgrades and mini-games to master.

15. Asphalt 8: Airborne

At some point, a total buffoon decreed that racing games should be dull and grey, on grey tracks, with grey controls. Gameloft's Asphalt 8: Airborne dispenses with such foolish notions, along with quite a bit of reality. Here, then, you zoom along at ludicrous speeds, drifting for miles through exciting city courses, occasionally being hurled into the air to perform stunts that absolutely aren't acceptable according to the car manufacturer's warrantee.

16. Letterpress

What mad fool welds Boggle to tug o' war Risk-style land-grabbing? The kind who doesn't want anyone to get any work done again, ever, that's who. Letterpress is, simply, the best word game on the App Store.

You make words to win points and temporarily 'lock' letters from your opponent by surrounding them. The result is a tense asynchronous two-player game with plenty of last-move wins and general gnashing of teeth when you realise 'qin' is in fact an acceptable word.

17. Jetpack Joyride

We're pretty certain if there's one thing you shouldn't be using for a joyride, it's a jetpack that's kept aloft by firing bullets at the floor. But that's the score in this endless survival game with decidedly tongue-in-cheek humour, not least the profit bird power-up, a rather unsubtle dig at certain App Store chart-toppers.

18. Super Monsters Ate My Condo

Logic? Pah! Sanity? Pfft! We care not for such things, yells Super Monsters Ate My Condo. It then gets on with turning the match-three genre and Jenga-style tower-building into a relentless time-attack cartoon fest of apartment-munching, explosions, giant tantrums and opera. No, really.

19. Hero Academy

Most developers create games from code, but we're pretty sure Hero Academy's composed of the most addictive substances known to man all smushed together and shoved on to the App Store.

The game's sort-of chess with fantasy characters, but the flexibility within the rule-set provides limitless scope for asynchronous one-on-one encounters. For free, you have to put up with ads and only get the 'human' team, but that'll be more than enough to get you hooked.

20. Trainyard Express

Developer Matt Rix is bonkers. That's the only explanation for Trainyard Express, which isn't so much a demo version of the wonderful Trainyard as an entirely separate edition.

The mechanics are great: draw tracks to lead trains to like-coloured stations, combining or crossing them on the way, as necessary. It starts out easy, but soon hurts your brain, and the 60 puzzles aren't repeated in the paid-for version. Bargain.

21. Triple Town

Three bushes make a tree! Three gravestones make a church! OK, so logic might not be Triple Town's strong suit, but the match-three gameplay is addictive. Match to build things and trap bears, rapidly run out of space, gaze in wonder at your town and start all over again. The free-to-play version has limited moves that are gradually replenished, but you can unlock unlimited moves via IAP.

22. Real Racing 3

While Asphalt 8 aims squarely at arcade racers, Real Racing 3 goes for the simulation jugular. Its stunning visuals drop you deep into high-quality racing action that sets new standards on mobile devices. Plenty of cars and tracks add longevity, although do be aware the game is a bit grindy and quick to hint you should buy some in-app cash with some of your real hard-earned.

23. Pitfall!

Fans of the ancient Pitfall series on the Atari might feel a bit short-changed, given that this comeback in the shape of a Temple Run clone diverges wildly from the platforming action of the originals. However, it's one of the best-looking endless runners on iOS, and if you persevere there are exciting mine-cart and motorbike sections to master.

24. MazeFinger Plus

Again, the forced Plus+ account sign-up is hateful, but it's worth persevering to get to this addictive game, where you "unleash the awesome power of your finger," according to the App Store blurb.

The aim is to drag your finger from the start to the finish of each simple maze. The problem is you're against the clock and obstacles litter your path. Great graphics and 200 levels of compelling gameplay ensure you'll be glued to your screen.

25. Dactyl

Almost entirely lacking in depth, Dactyl is nonetheless one of the most furiously addictive games on the App Store. A gloriously demented Whack-A-Mole-style effort, Dactyl merely tasks you with tapping red bombs to stop them exploding.

Almost immediately, though, red bombs arrive thick and fast, forcing you to keep track and tap them in order, to avoid the inevitable 'game over'.

26. Trace

Trace is a sweet, inventive platform game which has you navigating hand-drawn obstacles to reach the star-shaped exit. The twist is that you can draw and erase your own platforms, to assist your progress.

With an emphasis on time-based scores rather than lives and the ability to skip levels, Trace is very much a 'casual' platform game, but it's none the worse because of it.

27. Solomon's Keep

Reminiscent of a twin-stick shooter mashed into an RPG with a really big wand, Solomon's Keep has your wizard battle endless hordes of supernatural foes, with the help of your thumbs and some in-game spells. It's a bit like an overhead Diablo, or, if you're getting on a bit, a powered-up Gauntlet.

28. Buganoids

Buganoids resembles a NES game where the author decided to mash together random bits from various arcade classics. You patrol tiny planets, blasting 'across' them to kill nasty bugs. The gameplay's reminiscent of Gyruss and Tempest, and although the controls sometimes feel a little off, the game's always fun for a quick blast.

29. Spider: Hornet Smash

Hornet Smash includes a level from that game, but its main draw is the frenetic arcade minigame. Still controlling our eight-legged hero, the aim is to fend off attacks by swarms of angry hornets, while weaving webs and munching tasty lacewings for health boosts. Three environments are included in this compelling and innovative title.

30. Bankshot

One for pool sharks, Bankshot tasks you with sending your orb to a goal by bouncing it off of at least one wall. A few different modes are on offer in this attractive neon-style game, but the best is Blitz, a high-octane time-attack affair.

31. Spaceteam

Think you know stress? You haven't experienced stress until you've played Spaceteam, a cooperative multiplayer game that requires you to all work together as a crew (and bark orders at your friends). Sounds easier than it is; failure to cooperate will probably end with your ship getting sucked into a black hole.

32. Lux Touch

Quickfire Risk clone Lux Touch isn't exactly a champion in the smarts department - the AI's pretty easy to outfox - but it's perfect ten-minute fodder for Risk fanatics. The graphics are clear, the board is responsive, and the game's also universal, for if you want to install it on your iPad.

33. iCopter Classic

There are plenty of one-thumb copter games on the App Store, but iCopter Classic goes right back to the genre's roots. You simply use your thumb to make your copter bob up and down, surviving for as long as possible without smashing into something; and there are plenty of unlockable themes if you prefer, say, a bee, submarine, spaceship or football to a helicopter!

34. Cell Splat

So you think you're observant? Cell Splat will test that claim to the limit. The game distills 'match' games to their purest form. You get a target shape or colour, and, against the clock, must tap all matching items in the well. Quite why this frantic, great-looking, fun, addictive game is free, we don't know; we just suggest you download it immediately.

35. InvaderR

Like Cell Splat, InvaderR streamlines and hones a popular game, but this time it's Space Invaders. Like Taito's original, aliens are out to get you, but in InvaderR you have it tough. While the invaders are content to stay out of reach, it's 'game over' the second you're hit by a projectile. This turns InvaderR into a compelling and exciting score-attack game.

36. Whacksy Taxi

Although it looks like a 1980s racer, Whacksy Taxi also has much in common with platform games. You belt along absurdly straight highways, avoiding traffic by dodging or leaping it. Variety's added by power-ups, new background graphics when you reach a stage's end, and several bonus zones that also provide extra challenge.

37. Hoggy

Hoggy resembles VVVVVV smashed into Nintendo's Kirby, combining platforming and puzzles. The game tasks you with grabbing fruit within jars that are peppered around a maze. Complete a jar and you get a key; with a certain number of keys, new maze areas open up. Although occasionally a mite frustrating, Hoggy's a great-looking, fun and innovative freebie.

38. Bam Bam Dash

Imagine Monster Dash with the cast of The Flintstones and you've got Bam Bam Dash. Your auto-running caveman has to avoid plummeting to his death and being eaten by things with sharp teeth. Nice graphics and helpful dinosaurs you can ride add extra flavour to the game.

39. Alice in the Secret Castle

If brutally difficult old-school games are your thing, Alice in the Secret Castle will appeal. The game boasts 64 rooms of NES-style hell, with a curious game mechanic that hides walls when you hold the 'A' button. Progression therefore becomes a case of mastering taxing and relentless (but rewarding) puzzle-oriented platforming.

40. Fairway Solitaire

In this game, golf met solitaire and they decided to elope while leaving Mr. Puzzle Game to fill the void. What's left is an entertaining bout of higher-or-lower, draped over a loose framework of golf scores, with a crazed gopher attempting to scupper everything. You get a few courses for free with Fairway Solitaire and can use IAP to buy more.

41. PicoPicoGames

It's clear you'll never see Nintendo games on iOS, but PicoPicoGames is the next best thing: a collection of tiny, addictive NES-like minigames. Frankly, we'd happily pay for scrolling shooter GunDiver and the Denki Blocks-like Puzzle; that they're free and joined by several other great games is astonishing.

42. Need For Cheese

This tilt-based avoid 'em up has you steering clear of cats (especially red ones that home in on you), munching cheese and grabbing power-ups to smash evil cats off the screen. Need For Cheese is simple, but a first-rate quickfire highscore game that rivals Bit Pilot for best-in-class.

43. Froggy Jump

At first, Froggy Jump seems like Doodle Jump, starring a frog. That's probably because Froggy Jump pretty much is Doodle Jump, starring a frog. However, its character, unique items, themes and lack of price-tag makes it worth a download, especially if you're a fan of vertically scrolling platform games.

44. StarDunk

Another game showing that simplicity often works wonders on mobile titles, SlamDunk is a straightforward side-on basketball game. The time-attack nature of the title gives it oomph, though, and there's also the option for online competition against players worldwide.

45. Solebon Solitaire

Solitaire was the casual game on computers before the term 'casual game' was invented. On iOS, there are tons of free and paid solitaire titles, but Solebon is our favourite traditional take. You get 50 variations (including the well-known Klondike) entirely for free, with the game being supported by unobtrusive ads.

46. Putt Golf

Anyone can whack a ball with a stick - real skill comes from putting. (Cue: enraged golfers attacking TechRadar Towers with pimped-out golf carts.) In Putt Golf, you get an oscillating targeting system, prod to putt, and then use tilting to amend the ball's path with digital Jedi-mind skills as it trundles towards the hole. Three game modes; hugely addictive.

47. Into the Dead

You know, if infinite zombies were running towards us, we'd leg it in the opposite direction. Not so in Into The Dead, where you battle on until your inevitable and bloody demise. The game's oddly dream-like (well, nightmare-like), and perseverance rewards you with new weapons, such as a noisy chainsaw. VVRRRMMM! (Splutch!)

48. Drop7

What do you get if you cross Drop7 with Zynga? A free version of Drop7! Luckily, the game's far more entertaining than that attempt at a joke: drop numbered discs into a grid and watch them explode when the number of discs in a column or row matches numbers on the discs. Drive yourself mad trying to boost your score by chaining! Forget to eat!

49. Punch Quest

The clue's in the title - there's a quest, and it involves quite a lot of punching. There's hidden depth, though - the game might look like a screen-masher, but Punch Quest is all about mastering combos, perfecting your timing, and making good use of special abilities. The in-game currency's also very generous, so if you like the game reward the dev by grabbing some IAP.

50. Galaga 30th Collection

In the old days, invaders from space were strange, remaining in a holding pattern and slowly descending, enabling you to shoot them. By the time of Galaxian, the aliens realised they could swoop down and get you, and Galaga 30th Collection is the game you get here, with minor updates that improve its graphics and pace, albeit for a weighty 140+ MB footprint on your device. Galaga fanatics can unlock other remakes in the series via IAP.

52. Rogue Runner

Rogue Runner is another one of those endless games, where you leap over gaps and shoot things until you fall down a chasm and ponder why your in-game avatar doesn't learn to stop once in a while. Rogue Runner stands out by offering a ton of skins and a smart overhead dodge-and-shoot variation, which is a bit like Spy Hunter if someone knocked the original arcade cabinet on its side - the vandal.

53. Dumb Ways To Die

Based on a Webby Award winning video, Dumb Ways to Die lets you try and save adorable characters from dying in dumb ways. There's more than a hint of WarioWare when it comes to the game's quickfire levels, which charge you in mere seconds with batting away wasps, saving private parts from underwater peril, stopping a head from exploding in outer space, and many more surreal rescue missions.

55. Temple Run

Top tip for any budding Indiana Jones types reading this: do not steal shiny things from temples guarded by demon monkeys, otherwise you will die. Still, if you're too stubborn to take our advice, use Temple Run for training, swiping and tilting your device until your on screen hero meets his inevitable demise.

56. ElectroMaster

We've no idea what's going on in ElectroMaster, beyond a bored girl trying to avoid responsibility by killing everything in sight with electro-blasts. The game's sort of like a twin-stick shooter but you tap-hold to charge and then release to let rip, dragging your finger about to fry your foes.

Games are short, but this is one of the most thrilling blasters on the system, despite it costing nothing at all.

57. Grim Joggers Freestyle

The original Grim Joggers was odd enough: 15 joggers jog for their lives in oddball environments, including a warzone, the Arctic, and an alien world. In the free Grim Joggers Freestyle, you get just one world, but it mashes up everything from the paid game into a surreal (but thoroughly enjoyable) endless survival game.

58. Frisbee Forever

Flinging a plastic disc can be dull in the real world, but in this whimsical game the classic toy gets to soar over desert canyons, through Ferris wheels and alongside pirate ships moored in sandy bays. Frisbee Forever is a flying disc game as Nintendo might have crafted it, with vibrant graphics, jolly music and simple but engaging gameplay.

59. Wind-Up Knight

Kings in fairytale lands have a screw lose, or perhaps just an odd desire to create the conditions for a tough videogame. In Wind-Up Knight, a princess has been kidnapped. Horrors! But rather than send an army, the king tasks a knight with rescuing her. Only he's fragile. And clockwork. And can't turn around.

Really, it's an excuse for puzzle-oriented swipe-based thrills, which demand near-perfect timing as the quest nears its end.

60. Flood-It! 2

Flood-It! 2 meets the rules of great puzzlers: keep things simple, but make the game so challenging that your brains start to dribble out of your ears. In Flood-It!, you tap colours to 'flood' the board from the top-left, aiming to make the entire board one colour using a limited number of taps.

This release offers additional modes over the original Flood-It! (timers, obstacles, finishing with a defined colour), and offers schemes for colour-blind players.

61. Greedy Bankers: Bailout!

A nod to our current financial woes, Greedy Bankers: Bailout! is all about greed. You swipe coloured gems together, to make bigger gems; tap and they explode in a shower of gold coins. Avoid the thief and beat the time limit to succeed. Extra modes are available via IAP, but the original—Arcade—should keep dollar signs in your eyes for a long while.

62. Tiny Tower

Social management games are big business, but are often stuffed full of cynical wallet-grabbing mechanics. While Tiny Tower does have the whiff of IAP to speed things along a bit, its tower-building and management remains enjoyable even if you pay nothing at all, and the pixel graphics are lovely.

63. Cube Runner

The accelerometers in Apple handhelds have driven development of myriad tilt-based racing games, but tilt controls can be finicky. Cube Runner, however, feels just right as you pilot your craft left and right through cube-littered landscapes, aiming to survive for as long as possible.

The game doesn't look like much, but it plays well, and longevity is extended by Cube Runner enabling you to create and download new levels.

64. Letris 4

At first, Letris 4 looks like yet another bog-standard word game, albeit one that's rather visually swish, but it regularly tries new things. The game's based around creating words from falling tiles, but it keeps things fresh by adding hazards, such as debris, ice and various creatures lurking in the letter pile. If you're feeling particularly brainy, you can even play in two languages at once.

65. Bejeweled Blitz

Before we played Bejeweled Blitz, we never knew precious gems were so 'explodey'. Still, here's the frantic member of the match-tree/gem-swap family, giving you one minute to obliterate as much shiny as possible, and then discover via online leaderboards that your chums are gem-smashing wizards.

66. Cool Pizza

Cool Pizza isn't so much endless running as endless weirdness. In a world of stark black, white and neon, a skateboarder catches air to hack oddball enemies (laser-spewing mini Cthulhus; rotating pyramids of doom) to death. The crunchy soundtrack adds to the sensory overload, resulting in one of the finest freebies on the platform.

67. Frisbee Forever 2

We already covered Frisbee Forever on this list, with its Nintendo-like fling-a-plastic-disc about larks. Frisbee Forever 2's essentially more of the same, but prettier, smoother and with wilder locations in which to fly through hoops and collect stars. It's lovely and costs precisely zero pence, so download it.

68. Gridrunner Free

Jeff Minter is a shoot 'em up genius, and his Gridrunner series has a long history, starting out on the VIC-20, at the dawn of home gaming.

This update riffs off classic Namco arcade machines but also shoves modern bullet-hell mechanics into a claustrophobic single screen, and in this version's survival mode, you have just one life. Argh! The 69p 'Oxtended Mode' IAP adds the rest of the standard game.

69. Subway Surfers

It looks a lot like Temple Run mashed into a children's cartoon show, but Subway Surfers plays a lot more like Run!, with its primarily linear leaping and sliding action. There are also plenty of power-ups to keep your graffiti-spraying hoodlum away from the chasing lawman and his faithful mutt. Just don't try this at home, kids, unless you want to redecorate a train with your innards.

70. HungryMaster

The hero from the insane ElectroMaster returns, but this time she appears to be tasked with feeding sentient houses roaring "HUNGRY!" in a fairly rude manner.

Local monsters amble about, which can be snared by swiping over them with a surprisingly deadly pixie dust trail, whereupon they're handily converted into food to be collected. Much like ElectroMaster, HungryMaster feels like someone found a lost classic arcade game and squirted it into your iPhone, but forgot to charge you for it.

71. Temple Run 2

We have no sympathy for the heroes of Temple Run 2. Having presumably escaped from the demon monkeys in Temple Run, they steal more ancient and shiny goodies. This time, they're pursued by only one undead ape - but it's massive. Cue: more running/jumping/hopefully not falling over, and some new mine-cart and zip-line sections. Wheeee!

72. Dropship

This wonderful ngmoco title used to cost a few quid, but Dropship is now free and is one of the App Store's biggest bargains. The game is a modern take on Gravitar or Thrust, with your ship battling gravity and shooting gun emplacements while searching complex vector-based cave formations for marooned allies.

The 'touch anywhere' dual-thumb controls take some getting used to, but the game feels fluid and exciting once they're mastered.

73. Chip Chain

This combo-oriented match game has a casino feel, and there is a certain amount of luck evident, not least in the way new chips are added to the table. But in carefully laying your own chips in Chip Chain, merging sets of three to increment their number, and wisely playing cards, you can amass high scores while simultaneously wondering why real casino games are rarely as much fun.

74. Score! World Goals

Take dozens of classic goals and introduce them to path-drawing and you've got the oddly addictive game of Score! World Goals. As you recreate stunning moments of soccer greatness, the game pauses for you to get the ball to its next spot. Accuracy rewards you with stars; failure presumably means you're compelled to take an early bath.

75. Groove Coaster Zero

Tap! Tap! Swipe! Rub! Argh! That's the way this intoxicating rhythm action game plays out. Groove Coaster Zero is all on rails, and chock full of dizzying roller-coaster-style paths and exciting tunes. All the while, you aim for prodding perfection, chaining hits and other movements as symbols appear on the screen. Simple, stylish and brilliant.

76. Snuggle Truck

For reasons unknown, cuddly toys are making a break for it, trying to get away from… something. We dread to think what cuddly toys are scared of, but we're willing to help them flee. The aim in Snuggle Truck, then: trials-like side-on hill-jumping with a truck, trying not to spill your cute chums along the way.

77. Dr Awesome Plus

Another ngmoco game, Dr Awesome uses a hateful forced Plus+ account sign-up, but get past that and you find a compulsive title that smashes together ancient arcade classic Qix and surgery game Trauma Centre. Dr. Awesome's gameplay centres around removing viruses by tilting your device to 'cut out' infections.

Gameplay is fast and furious and, oddly, your Address Book contacts are used for patient names, so you can always choose to sacrifice your high score and off your boss in the virtual world.

78. Cubed Rally Redline

The endless rally game Cubed Rally Redline is devious. On the surface, it looks simple: move left or right in five clearly-defined lanes, and use the 'emergency time brake' to navigate tricky bits. But the brake needs time to recharge and the road soon becomes chock full of trees, cows, cruise liners and dinosaurs. And you thought your local motorway had problems!

79. Whale Trail

There's something delightfully trippy and dreamy about Whale Trail, which features a giant mammal from the sea traversing the heavens, powered by rainbow bubbles, collecting stars with which to attack menacing angry clouds. The game's sweet nature disguises a challenging edge, though - it takes plenty of practice before your whale stays aloft for any length of time.

80. 1800

Games don't come any simpler than 1800. You try to stop a cursor in the dead centre of the screen, which rewards you with the maximum score. Any deviation and you'll be awarded with a lower number and have to try again… and again. This one might be insanely minimal but it's absurdly addictive.

81. ON/OFF

All you have to do in ON/OFF is connect the switches using solid strings of coloured tiles. The problem is, you can't just draw the colours on - instead, you slide tiles around, thereby messing up connections you've already made. Within just a dozen levels, this one will trigger the switch that makes steam shoot out of your ears.

82. Clowns in the Face

Tennis in the Face had a racket-wielding hero saving a city from an evil energy drink corporation, mostly through smacking enemies in the face with tennis balls. This freebie version comes across like the protagonist's fever dream, placing him in a clown-filled hell, with only his fuzzy balls to save him.

83. Plants vs Zombies 2

This is more like Plants vs Zombies 2 vs freemium grinding. But if you can look past the forced repetition of stages and irksome IAP, there's a lot to like in EA's horticulture/zombie defence sequel, including loads of new stages, a bunch of new plants, plenty of unique features, and a smattering of time travel.

84. Doctor Who: Legacy

It's a case of timey-wimey-puzzley-wuzzley as Doctor Who: Legacy aims to show you that your iPhone is bigger on the inside, able to house intergalactic warfare. The game itself is a gem-swapper not a million miles away from Puzzle Quest, but all the Doctor Who trappings will make it a must for fans of the show - or Daleks fine-tuning their tactics regarding how to finally beat their nemesis, mostly via the use of strategically placed coloured orbs.

85. Rise of the Blobs

Poor Marsh Mal. He's atop a cylindrical tower, about to be mauled to death by waves of hungry blobs. His only defence: a limitless supply of fruit, which he can use to blow up like-coloured blobs, thereby holding off death for a few precious extra moments.

Yep, it's Rise of the Blobs - another block-falling game (think: a simplified Dr. Mario wrapped around a tube), but this one has wonderful visuals, suitably squelchy sound, and strategic underpinnings for those willing to master the game mechanics.

86. Sid Meier's Ace Patrol

Nyeeeeooowww! Daggadaggadaggadagga! It's biplane o' clock in this Civ-like take on World War I dogfighting. You and the bally enemy take it in turns to climb, dive, roll and shoot, as you aim to turn the tide of the war and ensure it'll all be over by Christmas.

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol is also one of the few games we've seen that understands the concept of micro-transactions, for example enabling you to spring POWs for 69p/$0.99 a pop.

87. Rotational

You'd think that a falling block game with only a handful of colours and set on a rotating disc wouldn't be that tough, and you'd be right - for about a minute. But Rotational soon ramps up the brain-busting, flinging multiple arcs at your spinnable walls, forcing lightning-quick reactions and thinking or - in our case - a lightning-quick end-of-game.

88. Pocket Planes

The Tiny Tower devs take to the air in game form. In, Pocket Planes, this management sim, you take command of a fleet of planes, aiming to not entirely annoy people as you ferry them around the world. Like Tiny Tower, this one's a touch grindy, but it's a similarly amusing time-waster.

89. Dots

Dots looks and feels like the sort of thing Jony Ive might play on his downtime (well, ignoring the festive theme, which is probably more Scott Forstall's style). A stark regimented set of coloured dots awaits, and like-coloured ones can be joined, whereupon they disappear, enabling more to fall into the square well. The aim: clear as many as possible - with the largest combos you can muster - in 60 seconds.

90. Smash Bandits

In Smash Cops, you got to be the good guy, bringing down perps, mostly by ramming them into oblivion. Now in Smash Bandits it's your chance to be a dangerous crim, hopping between vehicles and leaving a trail of destruction in your wake. The game also amusingly includes the A-Team van and a gadget known only as the Jibba Jabba. We love it when a plan comes together!

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/60-best-free-iphone-games-on-the-planet-669893?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/669893Craig Grannell2015-03-03T14:14:00ZMobile phones, Phone and communications, Apple, ComputingOpinion: So it turns out Windows and Ubuntu really aren't that different at allhttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/mobile_phones/Ubuntu/windowsubuntu-470-75.jpg

You know those awful romantic comedies where two would-be suitors accidently bump into each other and form an instant mutual dislike before eventually realising that, gosh, they actually have a huge amount in common?

That's what I feel I've just seen at MWC 2015, though instead of a beautiful American actress and a bumbling and foppish British guy, we have the less than glamourous Ubuntu and Windows starring as the star-crossed lovers.

Microsoft and Canonical, the companies behind Windows 10 and Ubuntu, have been showing their visions for putting desktop operating systems on mobile devices.

I met up with both here in Barcelona, and came away from the latter with a tremendous sense of déjà vu, as the two companies seem to have far more in common than they (and their supporters, especially on Ubuntu's side) would like to admit.

Canonical is far more forthright, with Cristian Parrino, Vice President of Mobile and Online Services at Canonical, straight up telling me that "PCs are a fading market".

The coy damsel and straight-talking player

They're doing that stereotypical rom-com thing: despite the way they say it, they're both saying the same things.

They mutually want desktop apps to work on mobile devices, though where Canonical says "convergence" in a rather unsexy way, Microsoft says "unified" like an emotionally-stunted Vulcan.

Both want their app stores to be the hip place to download your software, and both will have to come to terms with the fact that that will probably never happen.

And what's a romantic comedy without the comedy? During my demo of Windows 10 for Phones the enthusiastic Microsoft representative brought up Cortana to search the web. The top search that was displayed? "I don't like my Cortana", something that grated with the head-bobbing-but-ultimately-there-for-the-cash Surface-toting DJ smashing out the bangin' tunes in the background.

Ubuntu was going down the opposite route, trying to appear smart, crisp and respectable... while failing to hide its rough edges with plenty of bugs and crashes during my demo.

So, despite their differences on the surface, both Windows 10 Mobile and Ubuntu aren't that different at all. Will they finally realise this and run towards each other, arms outstretched while a Coldplay song or some other pap plays in the background? MWC 2015 isn't over yet…

Forget using your fingerprint to unlock your phone - how about using your eyeball, Minority Report-style, instead? That's the future being promised by Fujitsu, which has been busy showing off its latest iris-scanning technology at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

This isn't the first time we've seen this type of tech - check out a similar idea floated by Viewsonic - but Fujitsu says its system is at an advanced stage and could be rolling out in smartphones sooner rather than later.

The prototype on the exhibition floor at MWC weighs less than 1 gram and fits on top of a regular smartphone. It contains a miniature infrared LED light and a miniature infrared camera. Once users have registered their retinas, the phone can be unlocked in less than a second.

Online eye-dentity

The iris recognition algorithm has been developed by a California company called Delta ID, and according to Fujitsu the error rate is roughly 1 in 100,000 - just make sure you don't blink.

The technology could be ready to go this time next year, Fujitsu says, giving us yet another secure way to unlock smartphones, log into online accounts, and make payments on the go.

There's an online demo video showing off the system too. "This device can be used to unlock applications and for cloud authentication," Fujitsu's Takuya Kitamura told PC World. "Fujitsu is also working to make this an enterprise security solution, adding iris authentication to fingerprint and vein scanning."

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Over at MWC, Panasonic has announced that it will launch its own MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) service, one which will allow its business devices to connect with the M2M (machine-to-machine) cloud.

The first product from the Japanese consumer electronics giant to utilise that network will be the Nubo, a 4G monitoring camera that is squarely aimed at businesses.

Panasonic didn't say who was providing it with the network infrastructure and didn't provide any details regarding costs (either fixed or per gigabyte).

One leading European supermarket is rumoured to be testing the technology and Cardiff University is using Panasonic's MVNO network to control its projectors.

Using 3G or 4G increases uptime and can cut power consumption (and therefore total cost of ownership) significantly.

]]>http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/panasonic-wants-to-be-a-mobile-network-operator-1286941?src=rss&attr=allhttp://www.techradar.com/1286941Desire Athow2015-03-03T13:35:00ZPhone and communicationsMWC 2015: Rambus electronic eye is thinner than a strand of hairhttp://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/TRBC/Miscellaneous/rambus-sensor-470-75.jpg

Technology outfit, Rambus, is seeking to revolutionise the Internet of Things by bringing dirt-cheap visual sensors to the party. Rather than focusing on the refracting properties of light, its engineers use diffraction to capture data rather than an image.

While it won't allow you to tell blue from yellow (everything is in greyscale), you will be able to distinguish forms and basic shapes (e.g. the number of fingers on one hand).

Although that might initially seem detrimental, it actually helps alleviate privacy fears that might arise due to the near-microscopic size of the Rambus sensor.

Ultra-compact and cheap

What's more, it is extremely thin and small, very cheap to produce, has an extended depth of field, a very wide angle of vision, works with visible and invisible light (UV, IR) and its power consumption is in the microwatts.

Dr Patrick Gill explained to us that the sensor is ideal for ubiquitous smart sensing, before adding that "producing a normal lens that size is near impossible".

Applications for this technology are near limitless and involves anything that uses point tracking, image change detection, object recognition, range finding and so forth.